Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Having or being a taste that is sharp, acrid, and unpleasant.
- adj. Causing a sharply unpleasant, painful, or stinging sensation; harsh: enveloped in bitter cold; a bitter wind.
- adj. Difficult or distasteful to accept, admit, or bear: the bitter truth; bitter sorrow.
- adj. Proceeding from or exhibiting strong animosity: a bitter struggle; bitter foes.
- adj. Resulting from or expressive of severe grief, anguish, or disappointment: cried bitter tears.
- adj. Marked by resentment or cynicism: "He was already a bitter elderly man with a gray face” ( John Dos Passos).
- adv. In an intense or harsh way; bitterly: a bitter cold night.
- v. To make bitter.
- n. That which is bitter: "all words . . . /Failing to give the bitter of the sweet” ( Tennyson).
- n. A bitter, usually alcoholic liquid made with herbs or roots and used in cocktails or as a tonic.
- n. Chiefly British A sharp-tasting beer made with hops.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- 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.
- Hence Unpalatable; hard to swallow, literally or figuratively: as, a bitter pill; a bitter lesson.
- Hard to be borne; grievous; distressful; calamitous: as, a bitter moment; bitter fate.
- Causing pain or smart to the sense of feeling; piercing: painful; biting: as, bitter cold; “the bitter blast,”
- Harsh, as words; reproachful; sarcastic; cutting; sharp: as,“bitter taunts,”
- Cherishing or exhibiting animosity, hate, anger, or severity; cruel; severe; harsh; stern: as, “bitterest enmity,” Shak., Cor., iv. 4; “bitter enemies,”
- Evincing or betokening intense pain or suffering: as, a bitter cry.
- n. That which is bitter; bitterness.
- n. Specifically A bitter medicine, as a bitter bark or root, or an infusion made from it. See bitters.
- To make bitter; give a bitter taste to; embitter.
- n. Nautical, a turn of a cable round the bitts.
- n. An old form of bittern.
Wiktionary
- adj. Having an acrid taste (usually from a basic substance)
- adj. Harsh, piercing or stinging
- adj. Hateful or hostile
- adj. Cynical and resentful
- n. A liquid or powder, made from bitter herbs, used in mixed drinks or as a tonic.
- n. A type of beer heavily flavored with hops.
- n. A turn of a cable about the bitts.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. AA turn of the cable which is round the bitts.
- adj. Having a peculiar, acrid, biting taste, like that of wormwood or an infusion of hops.
- adj. Causing pain or smart; piercing; painful; sharp; severe.
- adj. Causing, or fitted to cause, pain or distress to the mind; calamitous; poignant.
- adj. Characterized by sharpness, severity, or cruelty; harsh; stern; virulent.
- adj. Mournful; sad; distressing; painful; pitiable.
- n. Any substance that is bitter. See bitters.
- v. To make bitter.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the property of having a harsh unpleasant taste
- adv. extremely and sharply
- n. English term for a dry sharp-tasting ale with strong flavor of hops (usually on draft)
- adj. causing a sharply painful or stinging sensation; used especially of cold
- adj. marked by strong resentment or cynicism
- v. make bitter
- adj. proceeding from or exhibiting great hostility or animosity
- adj. causing a sharp and acrid taste experience
- n. the taste experience when quinine or coffee is taken into the mouth
- adj. expressive of severe grief or regret
- adj. harsh or corrosive in tone
- adj. very difficult to accept or bear
Etymologies
- Middle English, from Old English; see bheid- in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“Absinthites or Wormwood wine, a nauseously bitter medicament then much in use; and this being evidently {242} the _bitter potion of Eysell_ in the poet's sonnet, was certainly the nauseous draught proposed to be taken by Hamlet among the other extravagant feats as tokens of love.”
“But the true Lord of our lives loves us too well to let us experience all the bitter issues of our foolish rebellion against His authority, and yet He loves us too well not to let us taste something of them that we may 'know and see that it is an evil thing _and a bitter_, that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God.”
“I finish, the word bitter on my tongue before I swallow it.”
“I think people would assume that that was the reason for my ambivalence here, the reason that the bitter is at least in equal measure with the sweet as I watch my dad walk into this new life.”
“Coming up at 7: 00 Eastern, more on the presidential campaign, of course -- the very latest on Senator Obama's refusal to apologize for what many say are his insulting and condescending remarks about small town America -- what he calls bitter voters.”
“Zarqawi, seven days before the election, declared what he called a bitter war against this evil principle of democracy.”
Keynote Address at the TD Waterhouse Investment Advisor Conference
“I don't know a better word than the word 'bitter' to describe how we feel today," Gillard told reporters in Perth.”
“Frank-Walter Steinmeiers SPD had its worst postwar result in what he called a bitter day after sharing power with Merkel for four years and governing for the previous seven.”
“M. Fermin has given an accurate description of the two spe - cies of manioc, with an account of its culture, to which he has added some experiments, in order to ascertain the poisonous qualities of the juice extracted from that species which he calls the bitter cassava.”
“Debates during Ehrlich's four-year term ended in bitter stalemates, with slots opponents arguing that casinos would breed gambling addiction, crime and other social ills, and that Maryland should focus on fostering industries with more high-skilled jobs.”
The Washington Post: Marylanders bullish on gambling as first slots casino opens
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘bitter’.
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Describing the Taste of Foods
yummy, zesty, piquant, pungent, sharp, spicy, poignant, delicious, ambrosial, appetizing, delectable, heavenly and 194 more...
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bad memory
copper, anvil, oblique, thrust, shrine, welfare, farewell, bitter, faction, sectarian, tangible, spectacle and 132 more...
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food collection
bread, peel, pot, chorizo, Filet, olive, fill, Phyllo, dough, bake, mat, pinot and 988 more...
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Words to Describe The Taste of Food
This list seeks to address a pet annoyance of mine. It occurs when chefs, food critics and travel writers, usually on television, taste something that looks either delicious or unusual and then in...
unctuous, sweet, sour, salty, bitter, umami, piquant, savory, tangy, luscious, delectable, brackish and 66 more...
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Words the sound like their meaning
love, hate, butterfly, whisper, shout, boil, simmer, glide, kiss, wisp, hum, hammer and 30 more...
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sophasaurus's list
tactile, facilitate, optimum, balk, release, drastic, galore, corrosive, bedevilments, fierce, deliberate, potential and 13 more...
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words classifiable in 4 different ways as a nou...
words classifiable in 4 different ways as a noun, verb, adj and adv
best, better, bitter, broadside, clean, clear, close, cod, collect, counter, crisscross, damn and 39 more...
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I am : cold
Cold adjectives.
cold, frigid, freezing, glacial, gelid, chill, crisp, cool, frosty, nippy, icy, brisk and 13 more...
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This list is like butter
peanut butter, almond butter, butter of antimony, mineral butter, butter of arsenic, soy nut butter, apple butter, cocoa butter, butter bean, butter clam, butterfly, cacao butter and 72 more...

PossibleUnderscore An injured friend is the bitterest of foes.
-Thomas Jefferson
Couldn't agree more.
Jul 28, 2009
johnmperry Usual kind of beer drunk in UK.
http://www.fullers.co.uk/master/content/images/1/1/819/1417.jpg">
Jul 22, 2008
bilby "I don't mean to sound bitter, cold, or cruel, but I am, so that's how it comes out."
- Bill Hicks. Jul 7, 2008
moore4th The squirrel's nut tasted bitter. Feb 15, 2007
moore4th The milk was 3 years old, it tasted very bitter. Feb 15, 2007
moore4th The yogurt was spoiled, so it tasted very bitter. Feb 15, 2007