bitter

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. adj. Having or being a taste that is sharp, acrid, and unpleasant.
2. adj. Causing a sharply unpleasant, painful, or stinging sensation; harsh: enveloped in bitter cold; a bitter wind.
3. adj. Difficult or distasteful to accept, admit, or bear: the bitter truth; bitter sorrow.
4. adj. Proceeding from or exhibiting strong animosity: a bitter struggle; bitter foes.
5. adj. Resulting from or expressive of severe grief, anguish, or disappointment: cried bitter tears.
6. adj. Marked by resentment or cynicism: "He was already a bitter elderly man with a gray face” ( John Dos Passos).
7. adv. In an intense or harsh way; bitterly: a bitter cold night.
8. v. To make bitter.
9. n. That which is bitter: "all words . . . /Failing to give the bitter of the sweet” ( Tennyson).
10. n. A bitter, usually alcoholic liquid made with herbs or roots and used in cocktails or as a tonic.
11. n. Chiefly British A sharp-tasting beer made with hops.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. Having a harsh taste, like that of wormwood or quinine. Formerly the word was applied to pungent and to salt things, as well as to those to which it is now nearly always restricted.
2. Hence Unpalatable; hard to swallow, literally or figuratively: as, a bitter pill; a bitter lesson.
3. Hard to be borne; grievous; distressful; calamitous: as, a bitter moment; bitter fate.
4. Causing pain or smart to the sense of feeling; piercing: painful; biting: as, bitter cold; “the bitter blast,”
5. Harsh, as words; reproachful; sarcastic; cutting; sharp: as,“bitter taunts,”
6. Cherishing or exhibiting animosity, hate, anger, or severity; cruel; severe; harsh; stern: as, “bitterest enmity,” Shak., Cor., iv. 4; “bitter enemies,”
7. Evincing or betokening intense pain or suffering: as, a bitter cry.
8. n. That which is bitter; bitterness.
9. n. Specifically A bitter medicine, as a bitter bark or root, or an infusion made from it. See bitters.
10. To make bitter; give a bitter taste to; embitter.
11. n. Nautical, a turn of a cable round the bitts.
12. n. An old form of bittern.

Wiktionary

1. adj. Having an acrid taste (usually from a basic substance)
2. adj. Harsh, piercing or stinging
3. adj. Hateful or hostile
4. adj. Cynical and resentful
5. n. A liquid or powder, made from bitter herbs, used in mixed drinks or as a tonic.
6. n. A type of beer heavily flavored with hops.
7. n. A turn of a cable about the bitts.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. AA turn of the cable which is round the bitts.
2. adj. Having a peculiar, acrid, biting taste, like that of wormwood or an infusion of hops.
3. adj. Causing pain or smart; piercing; painful; sharp; severe.
4. adj. Causing, or fitted to cause, pain or distress to the mind; calamitous; poignant.
5. adj. Characterized by sharpness, severity, or cruelty; harsh; stern; virulent.
6. adj. Mournful; sad; distressing; painful; pitiable.
7. n. Any substance that is bitter. See bitters.
8. v. To make bitter.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. the property of having a harsh unpleasant taste
2. adv. extremely and sharply
3. n. English term for a dry sharp-tasting ale with strong flavor of hops (usually on draft)
4. adj. causing a sharply painful or stinging sensation; used especially of cold
5. adj. marked by strong resentment or cynicism
6. v. make bitter
7. adj. proceeding from or exhibiting great hostility or animosity
8. adj. causing a sharp and acrid taste experience
9. n. the taste experience when quinine or coffee is taken into the mouth
10. adj. expressive of severe grief or regret
11. adj. harsh or corrosive in tone
12. adj. very difficult to accept or bear