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  1. bitter end love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A final, painful, or disastrous extremity.
  2. n. Nautical The inboard end of a chain, rope, or cable, especially the end of a rope or cable that is wound around a bitt.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. Nautical, that part of a cable which is abaft the bitts, and therefore within board, when the ship rides at anchor.

Wiktionary

  1. n. nautical that part of an anchor cable which is abaft the bitts and thus remains inboard when a ship is riding at anchor
  2. n. idiomatic The end of a long and difficult process.
  3. n. nautical the final six fathoms of anchor chain before the point of attachment in the chain locker of modern U.S.naval vessels, with these six fathoms often painted blue, white and red to warn deck hands of the end of available anchor chain.

GNU Webster's 1913

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

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. (nautical) the inboard end of a line or cable especially the end that is wound around a bitt
  2. n. the final extremity (however unpleasant it may be)

Etymologies

  1. English bitter, bitt (bitt + -er1) + end. Sense 1, influenced by bitter. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “For three or four years they had fought our troops obstinately, and surrendered at the bitter end in the belief that they were merely overpowered, not conquered.”

    Fictionaut: She Makes Her Mouth Small & Round & Other Stories

  • “The vine of Sodom always thought might refer to Cucumis calocynthis, which is bitter end powders inside; the term vine would scarcely be given to any but a trailing or other plant of the habit of a vine. ”

    Smith's Bible Dictionary

  • “Falk on the indignities we suffer in our death-denying culture, “where patients, regardless of mental status or the irreversibility of disease, are treated until the bitter end when they lie bloated, bleeding, and crushed after the final flurry of infusions and cardiac massage.””

    Simon & Schuster: Experiencing the Next World Now

  • “Sometimes I thought I was sure ’nough from Ohier, an’ other times I could ’a swore I was from th’ bitter end of Florida.”

    The Red Badge of Courage

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hypernyms (3)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. terminal
  1. end
  1. extremity

reverse dictionary (2)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. utterance
  1. cucumber

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Comments

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  • chained_bear See usage note on bitts. Mar 5, 2008

  • reesetee A nautical term--specifically a knot-tying nautical term--referring to the loose end of a rope (as opposed to the standing end, which takes the strain). The name arises from securing hawsers on large ships. After a rope was winched tight, the strain on the hawser was temporarily taken up with a second rope attached to the hawser with a rolling hitch. The hawser was then taken off the winch, and the end, now loose, was transferred to the bitts--the strong posts to which the rope was secured. The term "bitter end" derived from this practice. Jan 8, 2008

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‘bitter end’ has been looked up 1195 times, added to 7 lists, commented on 2 times, and is not a valid Scrabble word.