Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A usually metal projectile in the shape of a pointed cylinder or a ball that is expelled from a firearm, especially a rifle or handgun.
  • noun Such a projectile in a metal casing; a cartridge.
  • noun An object resembling a projectile in shape, action, or effect.
  • noun Printing A heavy dot (•) used to highlight a particular passage.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In poker, an ace: as, a pair of bullets.
  • noun A small ball.
  • noun Specifically—2. A small metallic projectile intended to be discharged from a firearm: commonly limited to leaden projectiles for small arms.
  • noun In heraldry, a roundel sable (that is, a black circle), supposed to represent a cannon-ball.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A small ball.
  • noun A missile, usually of lead, and round or elongated in form, to be discharged from a rifle, musket, pistol, or other small firearm.
  • noun obsolete A cannon ball.
  • noun The fetlock of a horse.
  • noun See Bully tree.
  • noun the wood of the bullet tree.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A projectile, usually of metal, shot from a gun at high speed.
  • noun Ammunition for a sling or slingshot which has been manufactured for such use.
  • noun typography A printed symbol in the form of a solid circle, (), often used for marking items in a list. (see also bulleted)
  • noun informal An entire round of unfired ammunition for a firearm, including the projectile, the cartridge casing, the propellant charge, etc.
  • noun banking, finance A large scheduled repayment of the principal of a loan; a balloon payment.
  • noun A rejection letter, as for employment, admission to a school or a competition.
  • noun slang One year of prison time
  • noun slang An ace (the playing card).
  • noun figuratively Anything that is projected extremely fast.
  • noun Very fast (speedy).
  • noun obsolete A small ball.
  • noun obsolete A cannonball.
  • noun obsolete The fetlock of a horse.
  • verb transitive, informal To draw attention to (text) by, or as if by, placing a graphic bullet in front of it.
  • verb intransitive, informal To speed, like a bullet.
  • verb transitive, informal To make a shot, especially with great speed.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a projectile that is fired from a gun
  • noun (baseball) a pitch thrown with maximum velocity
  • noun a high-speed passenger train

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French boulette, diminutive of boule, ball, from Old French, from Latin bulla.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle French boulette.

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Examples

Comments

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  • I like to use bullets in my rifle.

    March 9, 2007

  • I have bullets a type of ammunition in my fire arm.

    March 9, 2007