Bitter

• POS: Adjective, Noun, Verb (usu participle), Adverb
• HYPHEN: bit=ter

CIDE DICTIONARY

Bitter, n. [See Bitts.].

 AA turn of the cable which is round the bitts.  [1913 Webster]

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

Bitter, a. [AS. biter; akin to Goth. baitrs, Icel. bitr, Dan., Sw., D., & G. bitter, OS. bittar, fr. root of E. bite. See Bite, v. t.].

•  Having a peculiar, acrid, biting taste, like that of wormwood or an infusion of hops; as, a bitter medicine; bitter as aloes.  [1913 Webster]
•  Causing pain or smart; piercing; painful; sharp; severe; as, a bitter cold day.  [1913 Webster]
•  Causing, or fitted to cause, pain or distress to the mind; calamitous; poignant.  [1913 Webster]

  "It is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God."  [1913 Webster]
•  Characterized by sharpness, severity, or cruelty; harsh; stern; virulent; as, bitter reproach.  [1913 Webster]

  "Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them."  [1913 Webster]
•  Mournful; sad; distressing; painful; pitiable.  [1913 Webster]

  "The Egyptians . . . made their lives bitter with hard bondage."  [1913 Webster]

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.

Syn. -- Acrid; sharp; harsh; pungent; stinging; cutting; severe; acrimonious.

Bitter, n. 

 Any substance that is bitter. See Bitters.  [1913 Webster]

Bitter, v. t. 

 To make bitter.  Wolcott.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Bitter, adj. & n.
--adj.
1 having a sharp pungent taste; not sweet.
2 a caused by or showing mental pain or resentment (bitter memories; bitter rejoinder). b painful or difficult to accept (bitter disappointment).
3 a harsh; virulent (bitter animosity). b piercingly cold.
--n.
1 Brit. beer strongly flavoured with hops and having a bitter taste.
2 (in pl.) liquor with a bitter flavour (esp. of wormwood) used as an additive in cocktails.

Idiom

bitter-apple = COLOCYNTH. bitter orange = SEVILLE ORANGE. bitter pill something unpleasant that has to be accepted. bitter-sweet adj.
1 sweet with a bitter after-taste.
2 arousing pleasure tinged with pain or sorrow.
--n.
1 a sweetness with a bitter after-taste. b pleasure tinged with pain or sorrow.
2 = woody nightshade (see NIGHTSHADE). to the bitter end to the very end in spite of difficulties.

Derivative

bitterly adv. bitterness n.

Etymology

OE biter prob. f. Gmc: to the bitter end may be assoc. with a Naut. word bitter = 'last part of a cable': see BITTS

THESAURUS

Bitter

Siberian, acerb, acerbate, acerbic, acid, acidic, acidulent, acidulous, acrid, acrimonious, affecting, afflictive, aftertaste, algid, alienated, amaroidal, annoying, antagonistic, antipathetic, arctic, asperous, astringent, austere, bad, belligerent, below zero, bilious, biting, bitter as gall, bitterly cold, bleak, boreal, brisk, brumal, brutal, burning, caustic, cheerless, choleric, clashing, coarse, cold, cold as charity, cold as death, cold as ice, cold as marble, colliding, comfortless, conflicting, corroding, corrosive, crisp, cruel, cutting, deplorable, depressing, depressive, despiteful, disagreeable, discomforting, dislikable, dismal, dismaying, dispiriting, displeasing, distasteful, distressful, distressing, disturbing, divided, dolorific, dolorogenic, dolorous, double-edged, dreary, dyspeptic, edged, embittered, escharotic, estranged, fierce, flavor, freezing, freezing cold, frigid, full of hate, galling, gelid, glacial, grievous, gust, hard, harsh, hateful, hibernal, hiemal, hostile, hyperborean, ice-cold, ice-encrusted, icelike, icy, incisive, inclement, intemperate, irreconcilable, irritating, jaundiced, joyless, keen, lamentable, malevolent, malicious, malignant, miserable, mordacious, mordant, mournful, moving, nasty, nipping, nippy, nose-tickling, numbing, obnoxious, offensive, painful, palate, pathetic, penetrating, piercing, pinching, piquant, piteous, pitiable, poignant, provoking, pungent, quarrelsome, rancorous, rankled, raw, regrettable, relish, reproachful, repugnant, resentful, resenting, rigorous, rough, rueful, rugged, sad, saddening, salt, sapidity, sapor, savor, savoriness, scathing, scorching, set against, severe, sharp, sleety, slushy, smack, snappy, sore, sorrowful, sour, sour-tempered, soured, spiteful, splenetic, stabbing, stewing, stinging, stomach, stone-cold, strident, stringent, subzero, supercooled, sweet, tang, tart, taste, thankless, tongue, tooth, touching, trenchant, ugly, unalluring, unappealing, unappetizing, unattractive, uncomfortable, undelectable, undelicious, undesirable, unengaging, unenjoyable, uninviting, unkind, unlikable, unpalatable, unpleasant, unpleasing, unsavory, untasteful, unwelcome, vehement, venomous, vexatious, vicious, vinegarish, violent, virulent, vitriolic, winterbound, winterlike, wintery, wintry, withering, woebegone, woeful, wretched

ROGET THESAURUS

Bitter

Painfulness

N painfulness, trouble, care, trial, affliction, infliction, blow, stroke, burden, load, curse, bitter pill, bitter draught, waters of bitterness, annoyance, grievance, nuisance, vexation, mortification, sickener, bore, bother, pother, hot water, sea of troubles, hornet's nest, plague, pest, cancer, ulcer, sting, thorn, canker, scorpion, dagger, scourge, carking care, canker worm of care, mishap, misfortune, desagrement, esclandre, rub, source of irritation, source of annoyance, wound, open sore, sore subject, skeleton in the closet, thorn in the flesh, thorn in one's side, where the shoe pinches, gall and wormwood, sorry sight, heavy news, provocation, affront, head and front of one's offending, infestation, molestation, malignity, causing pain, hurting, hurtful, painful, dolorific, dolorous, unpleasant, unpleasing, displeasing, disagreeable, unpalatable, bitter, distasteful, uninviting, unwelcome, undesirable, undesired, obnoxious, unacceptable, unpopular, thankless, unsatisfactory, untoward, unlucky, uncomfortable, distressing, afflicting, afflictive, joyless, cheerless, comfortless, dismal, disheartening, depressing, depressive, dreary, melancholy, grievous, piteous, woeful, rueful, mournful, deplorable, pitiable, lamentable, sad, affecting, touching, pathetic, irritating, provoking, stinging, annoying, aggravating, mortifying, galling, unaccommodating, invidious, vexatious, troublesome, tiresome, irksome, wearisome, plaguing, plaguy, awkward, importunate, teasing, pestering, bothering, harassing, worrying, tormenting, carking, intolerable, insufferable, insupportable, unbearable, unendurable, past bearing, not to be borne, not to be endured, more than flesh and blood can bear, enough to drive one mad, enough to provoke a saint, enough to make a parson swear, enough to gag a maggot, shocking, terrific, grim, appalling, crushing, dreadful, fearful, frightful, thrilling, tremendous, dire, heart-breaking, heart-rending, heart-wounding, heart-corroding, heart-sickening, harrowing, rending, odious, hateful, execrable, repulsive, repellent, abhorrent, horrid, horrible, horrific, horrifying, offensive, nauseous, nauseating, disgusting, sickening, revolting, nasty, loathsome, loathful, fulsome, vile, hideous, sharp, acute, sore, severe, grave, hard, harsh, cruel, biting, caustic, cutting, corroding, consuming, racking, excruciating, searching, grinding, grating, agonizing, envenomed, catheretic, pyrotic, ruinous, disastrous, calamitous, tragical, desolating, withering, burdensome, onerous, oppressive, cumbrous, cumbersome, painfully, with pain, deuced, Int, hinc illae lachrymae!, surgit amari aliquid, the place being too hot to hold one, the iron entering into the soul, he jests at scars that never felt a wound, I must be cruel only to be kind, what deep wounds ever closed without a scar?.

Discourtesy

N discourtesy, ill breeding, ill manners, bad manners, ungainly manners, insuavity, uncourteousness rusticity, inurbanity, illiberality, incivility displacency, disrespect, procacity, impudence: barbarism, barbarity, misbehavior, brutality, blackguardism, conduct unbecoming a gentleman, grossieret_e, brusquerie, vulgarity, churlishness, spinosity, perversity, moroseness, sternness, austerity, moodishness, captiousness, cynicism, tartness, acrimony, acerbity, virulence, asperity, scowl, black looks, frown, short answer, rebuff, hard words, contumely, unparliamentary language, personality, bear, bruin, brute, blackguard, beast, unlicked cub, frump, crosspatch, saucebox, crooked stick, grizzly, discourteous, uncourteous, uncourtly, ill-bred, ill-mannered, ill-behaved, ill-conditioned, unbred, unmannerly, unmannered, impolite, unpolite, unpolished, uncivilized, ungenteel, ungentleman-like, ungentlemanly, unladylike, blackguard, vulgar, dedecorous, foul- mouthed foul-spoken, abusive, uncivil, ungracious, unceremonious, cool, pert, forward, obtrusive, impudent, rude, saucy, precocious, repulsive, uncomplaisant, unaccommodating, unneighborly, ungallant, inaffable, ungentle, ungainly, rough, rugged, bluff, blunt, gruff, churlish, boorish, bearish, brutal, brusque, stern, harsh, austere, cavalier, taint, sour, crabbed, sharp, short, trenchant, sarcastic, biting, doggish, caustic, virulent, bitter, acrimonious, venomous, contumelious, snarling, surly, surly as a bear, perverse, grim, sullen, peevish, untactful, impolitic, undiplomatic, artless, discourteously, with discourtesy, with a bad grace.

Hate

N hate, hatred, vials of hate, disaffection, disfavor, alienation, estrangement, coolness, enmity, animosity, umbrage, pique, grudge, dudgeon, spleen bitterness, bitterness of feeling, ill blood, bad blood, acrimony, malice, implacability, repugnance, misanthropy, demonophobia, gynephobia, negrophobia, odium, unpopularity, detestation, antipathy, object of hatred, object of execration, abomination, aversion, b=ete noire, enemy, bitter pill, source of annoyance, hating, abhorrent, averse from, set against, bitter, implacable, unloved, unbeloved, unlamented, undeplored, unmourned, uncared for, unendeared, un-valued, disliked, crossed in love, forsaken, rejected, lovelorn, jilted, obnoxious, hateful, odious, abominable, repulsive, offensive, shocking, disgusting, reprehensible, invidious, spiteful, malicious, insulting, irritating, provoking, at daggers drawn, not on speaking terms, at loggerheads, no love lost between.

Resentment

N resentment, displeasure, animosity, anger, wrath, indignation, exasperation, bitter resentment, wrathful indignation, pique, umbrage, huff, miff, soreness, dudgeon, acerbity, virulence, bitterness, acrimony, asperity, spleen, gall, heart-burning, heart-swelling, rankling, ill humor, bad humor, ill temper, bad temper, irascibility, ill blood, revenge, excitement, irritation, warmth, bile, choler, ire, fume, pucker, dander, ferment, ebullition, towering passion, acharnement, angry mood, taking, pet, tiff, passion, fit, tantrums, burst, explosion, paroxysm, storm, rage, fury, desperation, violence, fire and fury, vials of wrath, gnashing of teeth, hot blood, high words, scowl, sulks, affront, provocation, offense, indignity, grudge, crow to pluck, bone to pick, sore subject, casus belli, ill turn, outrage, Furies, Eumenides, buffet, slap in the face, box on the ear, rap on the knuckles, angry, wrath, irate, ireful, wrathful, cross, Achillean, sulky, bitter, virulent, acrimonious &c (discourteous), violent, warm, burning, boiling, boiling over, fuming, raging, foaming, foaming at the mouth, convulsed with rage, offended, waxy, acharne, wrought, worked up, indignant, hurt, sore, set against, fierce, wild, rageful, furious, mad with rage, fiery, infuriate, rabid, savage, relentless, flushed with anger, flushed with rage, in a huff, in a stew, in a fume, in a pucker, in a passion, in a rage, in a fury, in a taking, in a way, on one's high ropes, up in arms, in high dudgeon, angrily, in the height of passion, in the heat of passion, in the heat of the moment, Int, tantaene animis coelestibus irae!, marry come up!, zounds!, 'sdeath!, one's blood being up, one's back being up, one's monkey being up, fervens difficili bile jecur, the gorge rising, eyes flashing fire, the blood rising, the blood boiling, haeret lateri lethalis arundo, beware the fury of a patient man, furor arma ministrat, ira furor brevis est, quem Jupiter vult perdere dementat prius, What, drunk with choler?.

Malevolence

N malevolence, bad intent, bad intention, unkindness, diskindness, ill nature, ill will, ill blood, bad blood, enmity, hate, malignity, malice, malice prepense, maliciousness, spite, despite, resentment, uncharitableness, incompassionateness, gall, venom, rancor, rankling, virulence, mordacity, acerbity churlishness, hardness of heart, heart of stone, obduracy, cruelty, cruelness, brutality, savagery, ferity, ferocity, barbarity, inhumanity, immanity, truculence, ruffianism, evil eye, cloven foot, torture, vivisection, ill turn, bad turn, affront, outrage, atrocity, ill usage, intolerance, persecution, tender mercies, unkindest cut of all, malevolent, unbenevolent, unbenign, ill-disposed, ill-intentioned, ill-natured, ill-conditioned, ill-contrived, evil-minded, evil- disposed, black-browed, malicious, malign, malignant, rancorous, despiteful, spiteful, mordacious, caustic, bitter, envenomed, acrimonious, virulent, unamiable, uncharitable, maleficent, venomous, grinding, galling, harsh, disobliging, unkind, unfriendly, ungracious, inofficious, invidious, uncandid, churlish, surly, sullen, cold, cold-blooded, cold-hearted, black-hearted, hard-hearted, flint-hearted, marble-hearted, stony-hearted, hard of heart, unnatural, ruthless, relentless, cruel, brutal, brutish, savage, savage as a bear, savage as a tiger, ferine, ferocious, inhuman, barbarous, barbaric, semibarbaric, fell, untamed, tameless, truculent, incendiary, bloodthirsty, atrocious, bloodyminded, fiendish, fiendlike, demoniacal, diabolic, diabolical, devilish, infernal, hellish, Satanic, Tartaran, malevolently, with bad intent, cruel as death, hard unkindness' alter'd eye, homo homini lupus, mala mens, malus animus, rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind, sharp-tooth'd unkindness.

Cold

N cold, coldness, frigidity, inclemency, fresco, winter, depth of winter, hard winter, Siberia, Nova Zembla, wind- chill factor, ice, snow, snowflake, snow crystal, snow drift, sleet, hail, hailstone, rime, frost, hoar frost, white frost, hard frost, sharp frost, barf, glaze, lolly, icicle, thick-ribbed ice, fall of snow, heavy fall, iceberg, icefloe, floe berg, glacier, nev_ee, serac, pruina, freezing mixture, dry ice, liquid nitrogen, liquid helium, chilliness, chill, shivering, goose skin, horripilation, rigor, chattering of teeth, numbness, frostbite, cold, cool, chill, chilly, icy, gelid, frigid, algid, fresh, keen, bleak, raw, inclement, bitter, biting, niveous, cutting, nipping, piercing, pinching, clay-cold, starved, chilled to the bone, shivering, aguish, transi de froid, frostbitten, frost-bound, frost-nipped, cold as a stone, cold as marble, cold as lead, cold as iron, cold as a frog, cold as charity, cold as Christmas, cool as a cucumber, cool as custard, icy, glacial, frosty, freezing, pruinose, wintry, brumal, hibernal, boreal, arctic, Siberian, hyemal, hyperborean, hyperboreal, icebound, frozen out, unwarmed, unthawed, lukewarm, tepid, isocheimal, isocheimenal, isocheimic, frozen, numb, frost-bitten, coldly, bitterly, pierre fendre.

Pungency

N pungency, piquance, piquancy, poignancy haut-gout, strong taste, twang, race, sharpness, acrimony, roughness, unsavoriness, mustard, cayenne, caviare, seasoning, niter, saltpeter, brine (saltiness), carbonate of ammonia, sal ammoniac, sal volatile, smelling salts, hartshorn (acridity), dram, cordial, nip, nicotine, tobacco, snuff, quid, smoke, segar, cigar, cigarette, weed, fragrant weed, Indian weed, Cavendish, fid, negro head, old soldier, rappee, stogy, pungent, strong, high-, full-flavored, high-tasted, high-seasoned, gamy, sharp, stinging, rough, piquant, racy, biting, mordant, spicy, seasoned, hot, hot as pepper, peppery, vellicating, escharotic, meracious, acrid, acrimonious, bitter, rough, unsavory.

Bitterness

N bitterness, acridness, acridity, acrimony, caustic, alkali, acerbity, gall, wormwood, bitters, astringent bitters, Angostura, aromatic bitters, sourness, pungency, alkaloids, turmeric, bitter, bitterish, acrid, acerb, acerbic, bitter as gall, bitter pill to take, sugar coating on a bitter pill.

Unsavoriness

N unsavoriness, amaritude, acrimony, acridity (bitterness), roughness, acerbity, austerity, gall and wormwood, rue, quassia, aloes, marah, sickener, unsavory, unpalatable, unsweetened, unsweet, ill-flavored, bitter, bitter as gall, acrid, acrimonious, rough, offensive, repulsive, nasty, sickening, nauseous, loathsome, fulsome, unpleasant.

Acridity

N acridity, astringency, bite, tear gas, smoke, acrid fumes, acrid, biting, astringent, sharp, harsh, bitter, (5) Sound (i) SOUND IN GENERAL.