bullet

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   Ammunition for a sling or slingshot which has been manufactured for such use.

   Then when our powers in points of ſwords are ioin’d / And cloſde in compaſſe of the killing bullet, / Though ſtraite the paſſage and the port be made, / That leads to Pallace of my brothers life, / Proud is his fortune if we pierce it not.

2. 2
   noun

   A rejection letter, as for employment, admission to a school or a competition.

   John's not going to any of his top schools; he got a bullet from the last of them yesterday.

3. 3
   noun

   One year of prison time.

   G.T.A. I got sentenced to a bullet, did six months at fire camp and got a modification.

4. 4
   noun

   An ace (the playing card).

   The miser, a-seeking lost gelt, / The doughboy, awaiting the battle, / May possibly know how I felt / While the long years dragged by as the dealer / As slow as the slowest of dubs, / Stuck out the last helping of tickets / 'Till I lifted—the Bullet of Clubs!

5. 5
   noun

   Anything that is projected extremely fast.

   Just as it appeared Arsenal had taken the sting out of the tie, Johnson produced a moment of outrageous quality, thundering a bullet of a left foot shot out of the blue and into the top left-hand corner of Wojciech Szczesny's net with the Pole grasping at thin air.

6. 6
   noun

   Very fast (speedy).

   bullet train

7. 7
   noun

   Ellipsis of bullet chess.

   Nakamura is a different animal at 15-minute rapid and five-minute blitz and even more so at one-minute bullet, and in this match he adopted a psychological approach which paid off brilliantly.

8. 8
   noun

   A small ball.

   Would you not suppose these persons had been whispered, by the Master of the Ceremonies, the promise of some momentous destiny? and that this lukewarm bullet on which they play their farces was the bull's-eye and centrepoint of all the universe?

Etymology

From Middle English bullet (“an official tag or badge of registration or identification”), from Old French bullete, diminutive of boule (“ball”). Later influenced by Middle French boulette and French boulet.