BITTER • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Bitter

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/bˈɪtər/ Listen

adjective

Bitter adj.

1.

Having a peculiar, acrid, biting taste, like that of wormwood or an infusion of hops; as, a bitter medicine; bitter as aloes.

2.

Causing pain or smart; piercing; painful; sharp; severe; as, a bitter cold day.

3.

Causing, or fitted to cause, pain or distress to the mind; calamitous; poignant. "It is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God."

4.

Characterized by sharpness, severity, or cruelty; harsh; stern; virulent; as, bitter reproach. "Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them."

5.

Mournful; sad; distressing; painful; pitiable. "The Egyptians... made their lives bitter with hard bondage."

Bitter apple, Bitter cucumber, Bitter gourd. (Bot.) See Colocynth.

Bitter cress (Bot.), a plant of the genus Cardamine, esp. Cardamine amara.

Bitter earth (Min.), tale earth; calcined magnesia.

Bitter principles (Chem.), a class of substances, extracted from vegetable products, having strong bitter taste but with no sharply defined chemical characteristics.

Bitter salt, Epsom salts; magnesium sulphate.

Bitter vetch (Bot.), a name given to two European leguminous herbs, Vicia Orobus and Ervum Ervilia.

To the bitter end, to the last extremity, however calamitous.

Synonyms: Acrid; sharp; harsh; pungent; stinging; cutting; severe; acrimonious.

noun

Bitter n. (Naut.) AA turn of the cable which is round the bitts.

Bitter end, that part of a cable which is abaft the bitts, and so within board, when the ship rides at anchor.

Bitter n. Any substance that is bitter. See Bitters.

verb

Bitter v. t. To make bitter.

See images of 'Bitter'

Etymology of 'Bitter'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Bitter" Quotes from Famous Books

... pleasures: for though these things may create some tickling in the senses (which seems to be a true notion of pleasure), yet they imagine that this does not arise from the thing itself, but from a depraved custom, which may so vitiate a man's taste, that bitter things may pass for sweet; as women with child think pitch or tallow taste sweeter than honey; but as a man's sense when corrupted, either by a disease or some ill habit, does not change the nature of other things, so neither can it ...

— Ideal Commonwealths • Various

... I'd like it—but you will be insulted. It will be horrid. There will be a row, sure as anything. I can't bear to think of what he may say; and, being an old man, you won't like to answer back, and—you have no idea what bitter words Uncle Brues says when he ...

— Viking Boys • Jessie Margaret Edmondston Saxby

... married to her. This friendship had existed for years, when McGee bought the Juval farm, for which White had also been negotiating, but which he failed to get on account of McGee having out-bid him. From this circumstance ill feeling was engendered between the two men, and they soon became bitter enemies. McGee had decided to build a fence between the farm he had purchased and that of White, and, during the winter, his teamsters were set to hauling the rails; and, in unloading them, they accidentally threw some of them over the line on to White's land. ...

— Thirty Years a Slave • Louis Hughes

... concerned, within the fortifications of a reserve which no one had succeeded in penetrating. Though he held a thousand confidences, he made none. In listening to the experiences of others he never referred to his own, or even hinted whether they had been sweet or bitter. He went on his silent way—and the world was the ...

— The Crooked House • Brandon Fleming

... illness brought upon her. Night after night did her weary little head slumber on a pillow which her tears had wet. Morning after morning did she wake up to the remembrance of her loss, with a burst of bitter weeping, angry at or indifferent to all her aunt's attempts to console her or win her love. No wonder that her aunt lost patience at last, calling the child peevish and wilful, and altogether unlovable, and declaring that she had more trouble and unhappiness with her than ...

— Christie Redfern's Troubles • Margaret Robertson

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