The metaphor to "bite the bullet" is fascinating because it's so easy to misinterpret as "take the bullet", when actually biting a bullet is a different (and much less risky) action, but the metaphor works just fine even if you misinterpret it.

The metaphor to "bite the bullet" is fascinating because it's so easy to misinterpret as "take the bullet", when actually biting a bullet is a different (and much less risky) action, but the metaphor works just fine even if you misinterpret it.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bite_the_bullet

I wonder if it's so easy to misinterpret because a common thing to do after you "take the bullet" is to "bite the dust" and so the two just kinda merge in people's minds.