dodge a bullet

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /dɔd͡ʒ ə ˈbʊl.ɪt/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Verb

dodge a bullet (third-person singular simple present dodges a bullet, present participle dodging a bullet, simple past and past participle dodged a bullet)

1. (idiomatic, informal) To have a narrow escape; to avoid injury, disaster, or some other undesirable situation.
   • 1989 December 7, Milt Freudenheim, “Scramble on Health-Care Costs”, in New York Times, retrieved 6 March 2014:

     "We have all these thousands of bill payers trying to dodge a bullet, trying to shift costs and pay less."

   • 2010 November 8, Jessica Desvarieux, “A Storm Averted, Haiti's Cholera Threat Grows”, in Time, retrieved 6 March 2014:

     Haiti dodged a bullet when Tropical Storm Tomas, once a hurricane, did minimal damage to the country's earthquake-ravaged capital of Port-au-Prince.

   • 2013 October 4, Tony Nitti, “Switching Gears”, in Forbes, retrieved 6 March 2014:

     By finding and fixing my aneurysm before it ruptured, I had miraculously dodged a bullet.

Translations

have a narrow escape

• Catalan: escapar-se d'una bona
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 逃過一劫／逃过一劫 (táoguòyījié)

• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: selvitä säikähdyksellä, väistää luoti
• French: l’échapper belle (fr)
• German: gerade nochmal davonkommen
• Portuguese: please add this translation if you can
• Russian: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: librarse de una buena
• Swedish: komma billigt undan