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bitter end love

bitter end

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

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

from The Century Dictionary.

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

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun nautical that part of an anchor cable which is abaft the bitts and thus remains inboard when a ship is riding at anchor
  • noun idiomatic The end of a long and difficult process.
  • noun 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.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

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

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[English bitter, bitt (bitt + –er) + end. Sense 1, influenced by bitter.]

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synonyms (36)

Words with the same meaning

  1. Thule
  2. Ultima Thule
  3. bottom dollar
  4. boundary
  5. butt
  6. butt end
  7. catastrophe
  8. climax
  9. completion
  10. conclusion
  11. consummation
  12. culmination
  13. denouement
  14. end
  15. end result
  16. extreme
  17. extremity
  18. fag end
  19. farthest bound
  20. final result
  21. finale
  22. jumping-off place
  23. last act
  24. limit
  25. nib
  26. payoff
  27. point
  28. pole
  29. stub
  30. stump
  31. tag
  32. tag end
  33. tail
  34. tail end
  35. termination
  36. tip

hypernyms (3)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. end
  2. extremity
  3. terminal

relateds (2)

relateds

  1. bitts
  2. to the bitter end

cross-references (2)

Cross-references

  1. at the end of one's rope
  2. last gasp

Comments

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  • reesetee commented on the word bitter end

    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.

    January 9, 2008

  • chained_bear commented on the word bitter end

    See usage note on bitts.

    March 5, 2008