Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
magic bullet \magic bullet\ n. [From the notion of a bullet that will kill only the bacterium or disease it is intended for.] A drug or therapy or preventive that cures or prevents a disease, with only minimal side effects; as, there is no magic bullet against cancer.
Wiktionary
n. (context idiomatic English) A simple remedy to a difficult or complex problem, especially a cure for a disease. Often used to refer to a non-existent, overly simplistic remedy.
WordNet
n. a remedy (drug or therapy or preventive) that cures or prevents a disease; "there is no magic bullet against cancer"
Wikipedia
Magic bullet may refer to:
- Enchanted bullet obtained through a contract with the devil in the German folk legend Freischütz, dramatized by Carl Maria von Weber in his opera Der Freischütz.
-
Magic bullet (medicine), the pharmacological ideal of a drug able to selectively target a disease without other effects on the body, originally defined by Paul Ehrlich as a drug for antibacterial therapy
- Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet, a 1940 Hollywood biopic about syphilis researcher Paul Ehrlich, starring Edward G. Robinson
- "Magic Bullet Theory," the name commonly assigned to the single-bullet theory by its critics in the investigation of the John F. Kennedy assassination
- Hypodermic needle model or magic bullet theory, a model of communications in media theory
- Magic Bullet (appliance), a compact blender manufactured by Homeland Housewares
- Magic bullet (software), a video editing plug-in by Red Giant Software
- The Magic Bullet (Angel), episode 19 of season 4 of television series Angel
- Magic Bullet Productions, an audio-production company
- Bullet catch, an illusion in which someone appears to catch a fired bullet
- Magic Bullet Records, an American record label.
The Magic Bullet is a compact blender sold by Homeland Housewares, a division of the American company Alchemy Worldwide, and sold in over 50 countries. It is widely marketed through television advertisements and infomercials and sold in retail stores under the " As seen on TV" banner. A feature-limited retail version not under this banner called the "Magic Bullet Single Shot+" is also available.
Since the introduction of the Magic Bullet, other incarnations include the Magic Bullet To Go, the "Magic Bullet Mini", the Bullet Express, the Baby Bullet, the NutriBullet and the Dessert Bullet.
The magic bullet was a scientific concept developed by a German Nobel laureate Paul Ehrlich in 1900. While working at the Institute of Experimental Therapy (Institut für experimentelle Therapie), Ehrlich formed an idea that it could be possible to kill specific microbes (such as bacteria) that cause diseases without harming the body itself. He named the hypothetical agent as zauberkugel, the magic bullet. He envisioned that just like a bullet fired from a gun to hit a specific target, there could be a way to specifically target invading microbes. His continued research to discover the magic bullet resulted in further knowledge of the functions of the body immune system, and discovery of the first drug for syphilis in 1909. His works were the foundation of immunology, and for his contributions he shared the 1908 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Élie Metchnikoff.
Ehrlich's discovery of Salvarsan in 1909 for the treatment of syphilis is termed as the first magic bullet. This led to the foundation of the concept of chemotherapy.
Usage examples of "magic bullet".
Sooner or later, someone would find a magic bullet for viral diseases.
He'd understood that the global nanotech infection that Leah Castaign and Trevor Koske had given their lives to engender would be a mitigating factor at best, and not even the temporary magic bullet of a penicillin cure.
The car kept skidding and rolling and plowing through things for a long time, repeatedly changing direction, like the Magic Bullet meandering through Kennedy and Connally.
The people who ask are, all too often, looking for a magic bullet or a secret ingredient or possibly Dumbo's magic feather, none of which can be found in classrooms or at writing retreats, no matter how enticing the brochures may be.
I had a strong urge to reach through the portal I'd made and probe the machinery which remained inside me: the tight smooth coil of the intestines, the demon snake which Kuwale's magic bullet had tamed.
I was among the architects of one of the worst mistakes that has ever been made, and this is my final throw, my magic bullet, my effort to make it right.