dumdum bullet
- noun
- /ˈdʌmˌdʌm ˈbʊlɪt/
- NSFW
:
balas dumdum
- The soldier's injuries were severe after being struck by a dumdum bullet that expanded on impact.
Examples
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During the investigation, officials discovered evidence of dumdum bullets being used in the conflict.
-
Tanks and troops broke through blockades set up by anti-Communist militants and stormed into the city, firing dumdum bullets and spraying apartment buildings without provocation.
Fiction book (1992) -
The reporter wrote about the controversy surrounding the use of dumdum bullets in modern warfare.
Synonyms
∞
2.2
A small metal object fired from a gun
45
7.2
A large bullet fired from a shotgun
A soft-nosed bullet that expands when it hits and makes a large wound
How Damaging
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase simply combines a lexical type label 'dumdum' (a soft-nosed, expanding small-arms projectile) with the general noun 'bullet', so its meaning — a bullet of the dumdum type that expands on impact — is directly predictable from the constituents. There is no idiomatic or metaphorical shift, making the sense immediately understandable to a learner who knows the component words.
Etymology
Dumdum bullet comes from a town called Dum Dum in India, where a factory first made a small bullet with a soft, exposed tip that would 'expand' on impact. Because these bullets from Dum Dum opened up and caused a large wound, the name dumdum bullet now means a 'soft-nosed' bullet that 'expands' and makes a large wound.