Green’s Dictionary of Slang

to be dismissed from a job.

1900–10		Stephens & O’Brien Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.] 46: COPPING THE BULLET: getting dismissed: synonymous with getting sacked, getting the wallop, getting the sack, getting shunted, getting fired [...] getting shot, getting the chuck.
1937–84		Partridge DSUE (1984) 253/1: mid-C.19–20.

to be thrown out of a place or dismissed from one’s employment; to lose a relationship.

1841		W. Savage Dict. Art Printing 93: When a workman, at case or press, either for neglect, want of punctuality, or for gross misconduct, is discharged instanter, and the usual notice of ‘a fortnight’ is not given, it is said, He has got the Bullet .
1868		T. Wright Great Unwashed 254: [One] who has [...] got ‘the bullet’, as the formal note intimating that, ‘owing to a reduction of our establishment your services will no longer be required’, is called among working men .
1872		Chambers’s Journal 9 Mar. 147: When a fellow gets the bullet from his work, he mostly has a spell at cab-driving [F&H].
1873		Sl. Dict. 101: To get the bullet is to get notice, while to get the instant bullet is to be discharged upon the spot. The use of the term is most probably derived from a fancied connexion between it and the word discharge.
1887		Punch 17 Sept. 126/1: I have just got the bullet, Mate – sacked without notice.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 3 Jan. 4/6: A few days later the whole of Charles’s clerical staff got the bullet.
1912		Bulletin (Sydney) 26 Dec. 15/1: Edith: ‘I ’erd yer got the bullet frum de jam jact’ry, Smacker.’ / Smacker: ‘Sure! De ’ead gee arst me if I’d go ter ’is funeral if ’e snuffed out; an’ I sed I’d be only too glad’.
1914		E. Pugh Cockney At Home 104: And I suppose [...] you used up all your manners, and that’s why you got the bullet.
1929		Melody Maker Jan. 9/1: You and your band are getting the bullet, Bert Ambrose is taking over the Savoy in your place.
1938		X. Herbert Capricornia (1939) 210: Use y’ nut a bit this time or you’ll get the bullet.
1953		T.A.G. Hungerford Riverslake 113: Oh, one of the blokes in the kitchen got the sack. A big log called Vodavitch. [...] He got the bullet.
1959		D. Hewett Bobbin Up (1961) 40: The girls at work reckon I’ll get the bullet pretty soon.
1962		F. Norman Guntz 16: I was dead lucky I didn’t get the bullet from this job.
1999		Guardian G2 19 July 11: When Margaret Thatcher climbed into the Daimler the day she got the bullet, she had tears in her eyes.

1. to dismiss from employment, to throw out of a place.

1882		Courier & Argus (Dundee) 1 Dec. 7/4: The warder really could make it out that a man had flown. ‘Oh! dear! What shall I do? They’ll give me the bullet’.
1930		Leader-Post (Regina, Saskatchewan) 8 Aug. 29/3: If, however, the cook is no good, he can be given the bullet.
1938		J. Curtis They Drive by Night 186: What’d they give you the bullet for?
1947		J. Maclaren-Ross Of Love And Hunger 49: Didn’t do too well though. They gave him the bullet.
1959		D. Niland Big Smoke 186: Marty and Sadie are not going to like it when you give them the bullet.
1959		D. Hewett Bobbin Up (1961) 153: The day shift foreman found him there and give him the bullet.
1960		H. Pinter Caretaker Act I: That was after the guvnor give me the bullet.
1976		T. Murphy Sanctuary Lamp in Plays: 3 (1994) II i: Giving you the bullet.
2005		P. Temple Broken Shore (2007) [ebook] I know him from before, he got the bullet from the Greeks, went Queensborough.

2. to jilt, to terminate a relationship with.

1938

J. Curtis They Drive by Night 273: If she goes and gives me the bullet I don’t know what I’ll do.

to threaten with dismissal, but not actually to dismiss.

1873		Sl. Dict. 101: Bullet to discharge from a situation. To shake the bullet at anyone, is to threaten him with ‘the sack,’ but not to give him actual notice to leave. To get the bullet is to get notice, while to get the instant bullet is to be discharged upon the spot. The use of the term is most probably derived from a fancied connexion between it and the word discharge.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

(US gay) to ejaculate (into a mouth or anus).

1972

B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.