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Crossword clues for bitter

bitter
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
bitter
adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a bitter argument
▪ There are bitter arguments about whether he was a hero or a war criminal.
a bitter blow (=extremely disappointing)
▪ Their defeat was a bitter blow.
a bitter comment (=an angry one)
▪ Several pensioners passed some bitter comments.
a bitter complaint (=a very angry one)
▪ The people are full of bitter complaints about their government.
a bitter disagreement
▪ There are reports of bitter disagreement between the EU and the US over this issue.
a bitter divorce (=involving very angry feelings)
▪ After a long and bitter divorce, Wendy was looking forward to starting a new life.
a bitter exchange (=one in which people criticize each other with strong feelings of hate and anger)
▪ There were bitter exchanges between them outside the court room.
a bitter rival (=one that hates you)
▪ They have long been bitter rivals.
a bitter strike (=with angry feelings between workers and managers)
▪ The miners finally returned to work at the end of a long, bitter strike.
a bitter/fierce dispute (=very angry)
▪ It caused a bitter dispute between the neighbouring republics.
a fierce/bitter clash (=involving violence and strong feelings)
▪ Fierce clashes swept across Bosnia and Croatia.
a fierce/bitter opponent (=a very strong opponent, who often expresses their opinions angrily)
▪ She became well-known as a bitter opponent of slavery.
an icy/biting/bitter wind (=very cold)
▪ She shivered in the icy wind.
bitter accusations (=angry)
▪ The dispute was marked by bitter accusations from both sides.
bitter chocolate (=dark chocolate with a strong sharp taste)
▪ Bitter chocolate may be added to meat sauces for extra flavour.
bitter conflict (=very angry)
▪ The new law provoked bitter conflict.
bitter controversy (=involving very angry feelings)
▪ The strike was called off, amid bitter controversy.
bitter disappointment (=feeling disappointed in a very unhappy and upset way)
▪ The fans felt bitter disappointment at England's failure to qualify for the finals.
bitter enemies (=enemies who hate each other very much)
▪ When these former friends quarrelled over money, they became bitter enemies.
bitter experience (=experience that makes you feel disappointed or upset)
▪ I knew from bitter experience how unreliable she could be.
bitter regret (=when you feel sad and angry)
▪ To the bitter regret of his party, he refused to call an election.
bitter resentment (=very strong)
▪ Heavy-handed policing caused bitter resentment.
bitter tears
▪ She wept bitter tears of remorse for leaving her children behind.
bitter wrangle
▪ a bitter wrangle over copyright
bitter (=involving strong feelings of anger or hatred)
▪ They are locked in a bitter quarrel over ownership of the land.
bitter
▪ The brandy would not have masked the bitter taste of the poison.
fierce/bitter/harsh/sharp criticism (=involving angry feelings)
▪ The prison system has been the object of fierce criticism.
keg beer/bitterBritish English (= beer served from a keg)
passionate/intense/deep/bitter hatred (=hatred that is felt very strongly)
▪ What, I wondered, had I done to provoke such deep hatred?
sweet/spicy/bitter/salty etc
▪ The flavor was like peaches, but not as sweet.
taste sweet/bitter/sour/salty
▪ He handed me some black stuff which tasted bitter.
tragic/cruel/bitter etc irony
▪ The tragic irony is that the drug was supposed to save lives.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
argument
▪ The issue of potency level has been a source of the bitterest argument between practitioners since Hom£opathy began.
▪ After a bitter argument when Albee was a teen-ager, she threw him out of the house.
▪ But defining and ranking these concepts produced some of the drafters' bitterest arguments.
attack
▪ He also launched a bitter attack on the judiciary, accusing it of corruption.
battle
▪ It would also help if he had been engaged in a much publicised and bitter battle with the Prime Minister.
▪ In the United States, an ever-more bitter battle had been fought around this issue since abortion was legalized in 1972.
▪ But a press backlash did get into gear, leaving a handful of diehard music writers to fight a bitter battle.
▪ A bitter battle is fought as to whether it should be six or five or four.
blow
▪ It was a bitter blow when the trustees preferred the reprint.
▪ The loss of that partner through death, either shortly before retirement or afterwards, comes as a bitter blow.
▪ It was a particularly bitter blow for Leeds, because in the very first minute they should have levelled the tie.
▪ So defeat was a bitter blow to Dowding.
cold
▪ Nothing for certain but the dark weather and the bitter cold.
▪ Mormons sang and danced to fight off the bitter cold of Iowa in winter.
▪ I got dressed quickly in the bitter cold of the room, and washed when I could.
▪ Hunger and the bitter cold would have reduced bird numbers and driven species to flock in the open fields.
▪ When she emerged into the car park the bitter cold enveloped her insidiously; it had been so much milder in Keyhole.
conflict
▪ During the tumultuous years that followed, Nottinghamshire was to play a major role in the bitter conflict.
▪ Today, the Mirror looks back to the first tragic deaths in one of the world's longest and more bitter conflicts.
▪ The 1890s and early 1900s saw a series of bitter conflicts associated with drives for union recognition.
▪ No one can deny that many of the most bitter conflicts in the world today have religious components to them.
debate
▪ A bitter debate over cuts opened with Labour's proposal to cut about £700,000 from pre-five education.
▪ Both demolition projects set off bitter debates.
▪ The idea of rewarding groups is also gaining steam in the bitter debate over merit pay for teachers.
▪ The number of permissible House terms has been a subject of bitter debate.
disappointment
▪ There is no doubt that the outcome of that long campaign, the Act itself, was a bitter disappointment to working-class radicals.
▪ Except, of course, for the bitter disappointment of his day lilies.
▪ Even in pure mathematics, he met with one bitter disappointment.
▪ To your bitter disappointment your request to go to a meeting in another town is turned down. 7.
▪ At this point he was overcome with bitter disappointment.
▪ Their bitter disappointment with Netanyahu and his government was not primarily political.
▪ This was a bitter disappointment to Oliver, but his new friends were still as kind to him as ever.
▪ Bishop carefully watched as first bitter disappointment and then professional concern chased startled horror from the woman's face.
dispute
▪ It is now the subject of a bitter dispute between the neighbouring republics.
▪ Exactly when the Gingrich case will come to a close has become a matter of bitter dispute.
▪ The parts makers must therefore take some pleasure in Mr Lopez's increasingly bitter dispute with his former employer.
▪ The biggest gains and the most bitter disputes arise over trades between north and south.
▪ The bill has bogged down in bitter disputes over the balance between law enforcement and civil liberties.
end
▪ He would fight my case to the bitter end, he vowed.
▪ I stayed to the bitter end.
▪ And there, some plunging sense of his own inadequacy assured him, he would find the bitter end of his search.
▪ Master Yehudi always won, and he went on winning to the bitter end.
▪ He at least was ready to slug it out to the bitter end.
▪ Do I intend to campaign to the bitter end?
▪ But a promise is a promise and we have to pursue this thing to the bitter end.
▪ He must be seen to be productive until the bitter end.
enemy
▪ Both Rennenkampf and Samsonov had distinguished military records as cavalry commanders in Manchuria, but they had quarrelled and become bitter enemies.
▪ The southern conviction that the Republicans were bitter enemies of slavery precipitated this decision.
▪ In the course of time he and Richard were to become fellow-crusaders and bitter enemies.
▪ The two neighbors fought a war from 1980 to 1988 and still are bitter enemies.
▪ He felt humiliated and helpless; his bitter enemy and master, Hassanali Fakhru, stood in the doorway and spoke.
experience
▪ Union attitudes have been powerfully conditioned by long and bitter experience.
▪ Yet he knew from bitter experience that forging such a bond in the late twentieth century entailed experimentation and error.
▪ I've learnt that from bitter experience!
▪ Had she forgotten the bitter experience of her own childhood?
▪ All three, from their different perspectives, and each with bitter experience, saw the dangers of noble egoism.
▪ She knew from bitter experience how treacherous such feelings could be, and the blind alleyways down which they led.
▪ Some of these fears have been forged out of bitter experience.
▪ Many had also learnt from bitter experience that a good education was needed in the continuing battle against colour prejudice.
fight
▪ Passage of the 1994 law came after a bitter fight that lasted nearly a decade.
▪ The United States will continue to furnish you and your people with the fullest measure of support in this bitter fight.
flavour
▪ Raw berries should be cooked and sweetened before being eaten because they have an intensely bitter flavour.
irony
▪ The bitter irony was that the whole plan had been her idea right from the start.
▪ His work is thus marked with a bitter irony which permeated not only the substance of his theory but also its method.
▪ And the bitterest irony of all was that he himself was a victim.
▪ It was a bitter irony that he condemned her for loving a man who was out of reach.
laugh
▪ She shook her head as a short, unexpectedly bitter laugh bubbled up from her chest.
▪ A bitter laugh rose up like bile in her throat.
memory
▪ Now she didn't even have that - just a few bitter memories.
▪ To those present dangers are added bitter memories.
▪ Isabel moved restlessly as bitter memories engulfed her.
▪ Old and bitter memories welled up inside her once more.
opponent
▪ Even his most bitter opponents are keeping their heads down.
▪ Ironically, the firm which achieved success in this area - CIT-Alcatel - was the most bitter opponent of Giscard d'Estaing.
pill
▪ The traditionalist camp has had to swallow some bitter pills.
▪ Its failure to comfort is just another bitter pill.
▪ Lamb and Botham had to swallow the very bitter pill of being dropped.
▪ We were in such a state we decided to swallow what seemed the bitter pill of Thatcherism.
▪ And we can speak up to tell them that bitter pills are indigestible.
▪ It was a bitter pill for the 117 men listed to swallow with their Thanksgiving turkey yesterday.
▪ It was a bit of a blow, a bitter pill to swallow.
rival
▪ Early returns show bitter rival and outgoing President Slobodan Milosevic well ahead in the race.
▪ Six teams are bitter rivals in what will be a fight to the finish.
smile
▪ A bitter smile crossed his face as his eyes ranged over the top men in the giant corporation.
▪ A bitter smile touched his lips at that, for hadn't Grainne long since been lost?
▪ He smiled a small bitter smile, and pushed the white folder aside.
struggle
▪ It will be a bitter struggle against myself but I know I can do it.
▪ The Buccaneers, locked in a bitter struggle for a new stadium, could attempt to leave Tampa Bay after next season.
▪ But the Bolsheviks were determined to frustrate them and immediately after October a bitter struggle ensued between the workers and the party.
▪ They would not understand what a bitter struggle my whole life has been.
▪ He contrasts the love themes of Romeo and Juliet with those which accompany the bitter struggles and fights between Montague and Capulet.
▪ This bitter struggle was personified by the Soong family, for years rent by political differences and petty jealousies.
▪ It was a long and bitter struggle with great losses on both sides, causing a serious weakening of the imperial army.
▪ Today's move is expected to be the conclusion of a bitter struggle for control of the group.
taste
▪ The pills left a bitter taste, a raging thirst and pent-up energy for which there was no outlet.
▪ Right now the bitter taste matched her mood.
▪ Sweet as the victory over polio was, one medical historian wrote: It left a slightly bitter taste in many mouths.
▪ Then look at each one very carefully, removing any yellowish pieces, which may give the finished dish a bitter taste.
▪ Even after swallowing it, its bitter taste lingered long in my mouth.
▪ But Kenny Brown's reply left a bitter taste in their mouths.
▪ She had tasted the fear of being cast out, and it left a bitter taste in her mouth.
tear
▪ The bright images of individual stars elongated and blurred into melting crystalline shapes as bitter tears pricked in Vologsky's eyes.
▪ Hot, bitter tears rolled down her cheeks, and with them came back the noise of the street.
▪ Just that one brief moment of madness ... Then the bitter tears of self-reproach.
▪ Finally he lay prone, still, exhausted; and bitter tears oozed out between his eyelids.
▪ Fighting back the sting of bitter tears, Lissa straightened her clothes, and left the office by a back door.
▪ She buried her face in her hands and burst into bitter tears.
▪ Inside the coach I cried the bitterest tears of my life.
wind
▪ He came out of the station restaurant into the bitter wind and strode across the car park.
▪ A bitter wind whips across the seared fields and bristly pastures behind the produce stand.
▪ Early that January a bitter wind blowing off the far Urals seized East Anglia in a grip of ice.
▪ Holly stepped out into the bitter wind.
▪ A cold, bitter wind blows through the branches, its whistling filled with the cries of tormented souls.
▪ A bitter wind scurried among the branches of the trees that rose above and behind the stark line of old-fashioned eagle cages.
▪ Her eyes were half-closed and her cheeks were stiff with the numbing cold of the bitter wind.
▪ The farm was beside Lake Eyrie and rain, along with bitter winds, would sweep over the vineyard.
winter
▪ Oxfam say woman and children are particularly at risk from the bitter winter weather.
▪ The bitter winter had all the country in its grip.
▪ That was a bitter winter in all ways.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ a bitter east wind
▪ a bitter legal battle over custody of the children
▪ I used to be very bitter and angry, but I've gotten over it.
▪ She shot a bitter glance in his direction and left.
▪ strong, bitter coffee
▪ The herb rue has a bitter taste, which makes it unpopular for cooking.
▪ The medicine tasted bitter.
▪ The party suffered a bitter defeat in 1964.
▪ There has been bitter fighting in the hills to the north of the capital.
▪ Try not to burn the oil, it will make the sauce taste bitter.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Because he was literate and articulate, he showed a bitter contempt for the self-appointed intellectuals of the inter-war years.
▪ I ask if I might have some green tea and feel even better as I sip the bitter, warm liquid.
▪ She loved him so much, and to realise that she was only an episode in his busy life was bitter indeed.
▪ The citron has the most beautiful fragrance of all the citrus fruits and its pith is not bitter.
▪ The extract is bitter but tolerable, and the root has the taste of a radish past its prime.
▪ The wind was bitter, but when they lay down Glover felt the warmth of the sun.
▪ There is no doubt that the outcome of that long campaign, the Act itself, was a bitter disappointment to working-class radicals.
▪ What had he done to make Juliet so vengeful and bitter?
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Bitter

Bitter \Bit"ter\, n. [See Bitts.] (Naut.) AA turn of the cable which is round the bitts.

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

Bitter

Bitter \Bit"ter\, 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.]

  1. Having a peculiar, acrid, biting taste, like that of wormwood or an infusion of hops; as, a bitter medicine; bitter as aloes.

  2. Causing pain or smart; piercing; painful; sharp; severe; as, a bitter cold day.

  3. Causing, or fitted to cause, pain or distress to the mind; calamitous; poignant.

    It is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God.
    --Jer. ii. 19.

  4. Characterized by sharpness, severity, or cruelty; harsh; stern; virulent; as, bitter reproach.

    Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.
    --Col. iii. 19.

  5. Mournful; sad; distressing; painful; pitiable.

    The Egyptians . . . made their lives bitter with hard bondage.
    --Ex. i. 14.

    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

Bitter \Bit"ter\, n. Any substance that is bitter. See Bitters.

Bitter

Bitter \Bit"ter\, v. t. To make bitter.
--Wolcott.

Related phrases:
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
bitter

Old English biter "bitter, sharp, cutting; angry, embittered; cruel," from Proto-Germanic *bitras- (cognates: Old Saxon bittar, Old Norse bitr, Dutch bitter, Old High German bittar, German bitter, Gothic baitrs "bitter"), from PIE root *bheid- "to split" (cognates: Old English bitan "to bite;" see bite (v.)). Evidently the meaning drifted in prehistoric times from "biting, of pungent taste," to "acrid-tasting." Used figuratively in Old English of states of mind and words. Related: Bitterly.

Related phrases:
Wiktionary
bitter

  1. 1 Having an acrid taste (usually from a base substance). 2 harsh, piercing or stinging. 3 hateful or hostile. 4 cynical and resentful. n. 1 (context usually in the plural bitters English) A liquid or powder, made from bitter herbs, used in mixed drinks or as a tonic. 2 A type of beer heavily flavored with hops. 3 (context nautical English) A turn of a cable about the bitts. v

  2. To make bitter.

Related phrases:
WordNet
bitter

  1. adj. marked by strong resentment or cynicism; "an acrimonious dispute"; "bitter about the divorce" [syn: acrimonious]

  2. very difficult to accept or bear; "the bitter truth"; "a bitter sorrow"

  3. harsh or corrosive in tone; "an acerbic tone piercing otherwise flowery prose"; "a barrage of acid comments"; "her acrid remarks make her many enemies"; "bitter words"; "blistering criticism"; "caustic jokes about political assassination, talk-show hosts and medical ethics"; "a sulfurous denunciation" [syn: acerb, acerbic, acid, acrid, blistering, caustic, sulfurous, sulphurous, venomous, virulent, vitriolic]

  4. one of the four basic taste sensations; sharp and disagreeable; like the taste of quinine

  5. expressive of severe grief or regret; "shed bitter tears"

  6. proceeding from or exhibiting great hostility or animosity; "a bitter struggle"; "bitter enemies"

  7. causing a sharply painful or stinging sensation; used especially of cold; "bitter cold"; "a biting wind" [syn: biting]

bitter

  1. n. English term for a dry sharp-tasting ale with strong flavor of hops (usually on draft)

  2. the taste experience when quinine or coffee is taken into the mouth [syn: bitterness]

  3. the property of having a harsh unpleasant taste [syn: bitterness]

bitter

adv. extremely and sharply; "it was bitterly cold"; "bitter cold" [syn: piercingly, bitterly, bitingly]

bitter

v. make bitter

Related phrases:
Gazetteer
Related phrases:
Wikipedia
Bitter
  • Bitter (emotion), negative emotion or attitude, similar to being jaded, cynical or otherwise negatively affected by experience
  • Bitter (taste), one of the five basic tastes
Bitter (beer)

Bitter is an English term for pale ale. Bitters vary in colour from gold to dark amber and in strength from 3% to 7% alcohol by volume.

Bitter (album)

Bitter is the third solo album by Meshell Ndegeocello. It was released on August 24, 1999, on Maverick Records. The album peaked at #105 on the Billboard Top 200 list in 1999. The album also peaked at #13 on Billboard's Top Internet Albums chart and #40 on Billboard's R&B Albums chart.

Bitter (surname)

The surnames Bitter, de Bitter or Von Bitter may refer to:

  • Billy Bitter (born 1988), an American lacrosse player
  • Francis Bitter (1902-1967), an American physicist who invented the Bitter electromagnet, which uses circular metal plates instead of wire coils
  • Friedrich August Georg Bitter (1873-1927), a German botanist and lichenologist
  • Karl Bitter (1867-1915), an Austrian-born United States sculptor
  • Johannes Bitter (born 1982), a German team handball player
  • Peter von Bitter (living), a German-born Canadian palaeontologist
  • Pieter de Bitter (ca. 1620-1666), a 17th-century Dutch officer of the Dutch East India Company
  • Susan Bitter Smith (living), an Arizona Republican politician
  • Theo Bitter (1916-1994), a Dutch graphic artist, painter and draftsman.
  • Michael Bitter (born 1971), a Jamaican born soccer/tennis player.
Related phrases:

Usage examples of "bitter".

That quest was abetted by a sympathetic schoolteacher, Rebecca, who saw in the lad a glimmering hope that occasionally there might be resurrection from a bitter life sentence in the emotionally barren and aesthetically vitiated Kentucky hamlet, and who ultimately seduced him.

After seeing Abie Singleton at the club last night, he suspected sleep was to become but a bitter memory.

Its leaves are fleshy, with a bitter saline taste, whilst the juice is slightly acrid, but emollient.

The shrub is a native of southern Europe, being a small evergreen plant, the twigs of which are densely covered with little leaves in four rows, having a strong, peculiar, unpleasant odour of turpentine, with a bitter, acrid, resinous taste.

It flowers from early in Spring until Autumn, and has, particularly in Summer, an acrid bitter taste.

Lawson chewed a piece of adobo and washed this down with a swig of the vaguely bitter Cruz del Campo beer.

It has been a bitter disappointment to me that you have made up your mind agen him.

And so she walked, aimlessly, anonymously, through the dwindling crowds, past the shops--half of them empty now, half still clinging tenaciously to life and profit, hanging on until the bitter end.

He was indefatigable when it came to crushing bitter almond seeds in the screw press or mashing musk pods or mincing dollops of grey, greasy ambergris with a chopping knife or grating violet roots and digesting the shavings in the finest alcohol.

Now and then we recollected that the time of our separation was near at hand, our grief was bitter, but we contrived to forget it in the ecstacy of our amorous enjoyment.

And as a queen disguised might pass anear The bitter crowd that barters in a mart, Veiling her pride while tears of pity start, I hide my glory thru a jealous fear.

Its fresh root is bitter, and a milky juice flows from the rind, which is somewhat aperient and slightly sedative, so that this specially suits persons troubled with bilious torpor, and jaundice combined with melancholy.

Willie Garvin, scuba mask pushed up on his brow, an aqualung strapped to his back, the mouthpiece hanging free, one hand raised to grip the threshold of the plane, bright blue eyes pitiless and bitter.

Behind the flippant words Ardagh was making the point that war was a bitter business and, more politely than Fisher, was ridiculing the notion that it could be civilized.

Jordan quitting its green and happy valley for the bitter waters of Asphaltites, and, in the extreme distance, the blue mountains of Moab.