Definition of "soft-nosed" []

• (of a bullet) made of soft material that expands on impact (adjective)

WordNet. Princeton University. 2010.

• "Port Adams is a salt-water village on Malaita, and Malaita is the most savage island in the Solomons -- so savage that no traders or planters have yet gained a foothold on it; while, from the time of the earliest bêche-de-mer fishers and sandalwood traders down to the latest labor recruiters equipped with automatic rifles and gasolene engines, scores of white adventurers have been passed out by tomahawks and soft-nosed Snider bullets."
• "One IS jumpy when soft-nosed bullets putt-putt around him."
• "Also, he saw that the revolver did not wabble, nor the hand shake, and he was thoroughly conversant with the size of hole the soft-nosed bullets could make."