▪ I. bitter, a. and n.1
(ˈbɪtə(r))
Forms: 1–4 biter, 1– bitter. (Also 1 bitor, -yr, bittor, 3 Orm. bitterr, 3–5 bittir, -ur, 4 byter, 4–5 byttyr, 4–6 bytter, 5 -ir, -ur, bittyr. Definite 1–4 bitre, 1–5 bittre.)
[Com. Teut.: OE. biter = OS. and OHG. bittar, ON. bitr (MDu., Du., MHG., mod.G., Sw., Da. bitter), Goth. (with different vowel) baitrs; prob. f. root of bîtan to bite, with the original meaning ‘biting, cutting, sharp,’ but within the historical period only used of taste, and in modern use no longer even ‘biting’ or ‘acrid’ in taste: see sense 1.]
A. adj.
1. a. One of the elementary sensations of taste proper (i.e. without any element arising through the nerves of touch): obnoxious, irritating, or unfavourably stimulating to the gustatory nerve; disagreeable to the palate; having the characteristic taste of wormwood, gentian, quinine, bitter aloes, soot: the opposite of sweet; causing ‘the proper pain of taste’ (Bain).
| a 1000 Guthlac (Gr.) 840 Þone bitran drync. c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 129 Ðet weter of egipte..þe wes sur and bitere. a 1300 Cursor M. 6349 Water bitter sum ani brin. c 1400 Mandeville viii. 99 A lytille Broke of Watre, that was wont to ben byttre. 1591 Shakes. Two Gent. ii. iv. 149 When I was sick, you gaue me bitter pils. 1626 Bacon Sylva §21 The Second [water will have] more of the Tast, as more bitter or Biting. 1756 Burke Subl. & B. Introd. Wks. I. 100 All men are agreed to call vinegar sour, honey sweet, and aloes bitter. 1868 Bain Ment. & Mor. Sc. i. ii. 38 Taste proper comprehends sweet and bitter tastes..The acrid combines the fiery with the bitter. 1884 Cornh. Mag. 628 Bitter things in nature..are almost invariably poisonous. |
b. fig. Unpalatable to the mind; unpleasant and hard to ‘swallow’ or admit.
| 1810 Coleridge Friend (1865) 166 Some bitter truths, respecting our military arrangements. |
c. bitter lake = salt lake (see salt n.1); spec. as the name of certain lakes in Egypt; (see also quot. 1882).
| 1843 E. Clarkson Suez Navigable Canal 7 The Bitter Lakes would fill up at any time from the Red Sea. 1882 A. Geikie Text-bk. Geol. iii. ii. 395 Saline lakes, considered chemically, may be grouped as salt lakes, where the chief constituents are sodium and magnesium chlorides with magnesium and calcium sulphates: and bitter lakes, which usually are distinguished by their large percentage of sodium carbonate as well as chloride and sulphate. 1957 Encycl. Brit. XXI. 517/2 Finally in the summer of 1869 the waters of the Mediterranean and the Red Sea were united [by the Suez Canal] in the Bitter lakes. |
2. transf. a. Of anything that has to be ‘tasted’ or endured: Attended by severe pain or suffering; sore to be borne; grievous, painful, full of affliction.
| 971 Blickl. Hom. 229 Þu me ne syle on þone biterestan deað. c 1205 Lay. 9685 Her heo sculeð ibiden bitterest alre baluwen. c 1340 Cursor M. 4827 (Trin.) For bittur hongur þat is bifalle. c 1400 Destr. Troy vi. 2502 Soche bargens are bytter þat hafe a bare end. 1583 Stanyhurst æneis ii. (Arb.) 65 Soom Greeks shal find yt bitter, before al we be slaghtred. 1828 Scott F.M. Perth xxvi, The time of separation now approached. It was a bitter moment. 1839 Thirlwall Greece VII. 285 For Eurydice she still reserved what she thought a bitterer death. 1850 Tennyson In Mem. vi, That loss is common, would not make My own less bitter, rather more. |
b. to the bitter end: to the last and direst extremity; to death itself. So commonly used: but the history is doubtful: see bitter n.3 Cf. Bible Prov. v. 4.
| 1849 Congress. Globe 12 Dec. 23, I am unfortunately among those who voted for the gentleman from Indiana, even ‘to the bitter end’. 1850 Ibid. 9 Apr., App. 434 Our defence is a just one, and will be maintained by us to the ‘bitter end’. 1921 L. Strachey Q. Victoria vi. 210 He would go on, working to the utmost and striving for the highest, to the bitter end. 1955 G. Greene Loser takes All i. ix. 62 A wife ought to believe in her husband to the bitter end. |
3. a. Hence, of a state: Intensely grievous or full of affliction; mournful; pitiable.
| c 1485 Digby Myst. iii. 997 Thys sorow is beytterar þan ony galle. 1588 Shakes. Tit. A. v. iii. 89 Nor can I vtter all our bitter griefe. 1611 Bible Job iii. 20 Wherefore is light giuen to him that is in misery, and life vnto the bitter in soule? 1816 Wordsw. White Doe ii. 115 Concealing In solitude her bitter feeling. |
† b. ‘Sour,’ morose, peevish. Obs.
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 118 Aȝein bittre ancren Dauid seið þis uers. |
4. Expressing or betokening intense grief, misery, or affliction of spirit.
| c 1230 Hali Meid. 43 Marie Magdalene wið bittre wopes bireowseð hare gultes. c 1330 Arth. & Merl. 1018 His moder..swithe bitter ters lete. 1611 Bible Gen. xxvii. 34 Esau..cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry. 1650 R. Stapylton Strada's Low-C. Warres ii. 29 No complaints were bitterer then the Abbots and Monks. 1853 Kingsley Hypatia iv. 42 Bursting into bitter tears. 1884 (title) ‘The Bitter Cry of Outcast London.’ |
† 5. a. Causing pain or suffering; injurious, baleful, cruel, severe. Obs.
| a 1000 Beowulf 5377 Draca..heals ealne ymbefeng biteran bánum. a 1225 St. Marher. 11 Þet balefulle wurm ant þet bittre best. a 1300 Cursor M. 697 Þe nedder was noght bitter. 1330 R. Brunne Chron. 35 He tok bittere Estrild, dukes douhter Orgare. 1603 Shakes. Meas. for M. iv. ii. 81 It is a bitter Deputie. 1635 N. R. Camden's Hist. Eliz. ii. 183 The government of the French was bitter. |
b. of instruments of torture.
| a 1225 Juliana 17 Ibeaten wið bittere besmen. 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, i. i. 27 Nail'd For our aduantage on the bitter Crosse. |
6. a. Characterized by intense animosity or virulence of feeling or action; virulent.
| 971 Blickl. Hom. 25 Onbærnde mid þære biteran æfeste. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xviii. 64 For a bitter bataille..Lyf and deth in þis derknesse her one fordoth her other. 1382 Wyclif James iii. 14 If ȝe han bittir zeel, or enuy, and striuynges ben in ȝoure hertis. 1655 Fuller Ch. Hist. iii. 44 No medium betwixt not loving and bitter hating. 1737 Whiston Josephus' Hist. ii. iii. §1 Sabinus..made a bitter search after the kings money. 1838 Macaulay in Trevelyan Life (1876) I. vii. 9 In politics a bitter partisan. 1848 ― Hist. Eng. I. 446 The bitter animosity of James. |
b. Const. to, against.
| 1382 Wyclif Col. iii. 19 Men, loue ȝe ȝoure wyues, and nyle ȝe be bitter to hem [1611 against them]. 1606 Shakes. Tr. & Cr. iv. i. 67 You are too bitter to your country⁓woman. 1833 H. Martineau Tale of Tyne i. 20 She had..been bitter against them. |
7. Of words (or the person who utters them): Stinging, cutting, harsh, keenly or cruelly reproachful, virulent.
| c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 95 He ne remde ne of bitere speche nes. c 1200 Ormin 9786 Fulle off bitterr spæche. 1589 Puttenham Eng. Poesie (Arb.) 41 To taxe the common abuses and vice of the people in rough and bitter speaches. 1600 Shakes. A.Y.L. iii. v. 69 As fast as she answeres thee with frowning lookes, ile sauce her with bitter words. 1605 ― Lear i. iv. 150 A bitter Foole! 1611 Bible Job xiii. 26 For thou writest bitter things against mee. 1712 Addison Spect. No. 433 ¶6 They would reproach a Man in the most bitter Terms. 1828 Carlyle Misc. (1857) I. 124 Faust is no longer the same bitter and contemptuous man. |
8. Of wind, cold, etc.: Sharp, keen, cutting, severe; hence of the weather: Bitingly cold.
| 1600 Shakes. A.Y.L. ii. vii. 184 Freize, freize, thou bitter skie. 1667 Boyle Orig. Formes & Qual., The Night proving very bitter..I found the Glasse crack'd..by the violence of the Frost. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 466 To fend the bitter Cold. 1796 Morse Amer. Geog. II. 308 The frosts are consequently bitter in winter. 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. (1871) III. v. ii. 180 A cold bitter drizzling rain. 1875 M. Pattison Casaubon 255 He caught his death in the boat on a bitter Palm Sunday. |
B. quasi-n.1
1. a. That which is bitter; bitterness. lit. and fig.
| a 1000 Elene (Gr.) 1245 Weorcum fah, synnum asæled, sorᵹum ᵹewæled, bitrum ᵹebunden. a 1240 Lofsong in Lamb. Hom. 215 Euer bið ðet swete abouht mid twofold of bittre. 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. v. 99 Þat al my breste Bolleþ · for bitter of my galle. 1690 Locke Hum. Und. ii. xxi, A little bitter mingled in our Cup, leaves no relish of the sweet. 1749 Fielding Tom Jones iii. vi, Surfeited with the sweets of marriage, or disgusted by its bitters. 1830 Tennyson Dream Fair Women 286 All words..Failing to give the bitter of the sweet. |
b. A bitter part.
| 1860 O. W. Holmes Prof. Breakf.-t. iv. 104 When you can get the bitter out of the partridge's thigh, you can make an enlightened commonwealth of Indians. |
2. A bitter medicinal substance: now usually in pl. bitters, q.v.
| 1711 Swift Lett. (1767) III. 101, I still drink Dr. Radcliffe's bitter. 1711 Vind. Sacheverell 63 He..might..be provok'd to mix a little Bitter with his Wine. Mod. Camomile yields a useful bitter. |
3. (A glass of) bitter beer. colloq.
| 1857 ‘C. Bede’ Verdant Green Married x. 78 Mr. Verdant Green and Mr. Bouncer..turned into the coffee-room of ‘The Mitre’ to ‘do bitters’, as Mr. Bouncer phrased the act of drinking bitter beer. 1862 Trollope Rachel Ray I. iii. 41 Going into Parliament..just as they pleased, like the modern heroes of the bitter cask. 1865 Hotten Slang Dict., Bitters, ‘to do bitters’, to drink beer.— Oxford. 1874 Ibid. s.v., ‘To do a bitter’, to drink beer.—Originally Oxford, but now general. 1894 G. Moore Esther Waters xxx. 236 A dozen pots of beer..and a few glasses of bitter. 1896 H. G. Wells Wheels of Chance ix, Every public-house..meant a lemonade and a dash of bitter. Ibid. xviii, A lemonade and bitter, please. 1901 Westm. Gaz. 8 June 6/3 A bitter having been brought, he quaffed it to his second's health. 1942 Penguin New Writing XIV. 133 The barmaid..replied there was nothing left but bitter and old-and-mild. |
C. Comb.: see after the adv.
▪ II. bitter, adv.
(ˈbɪtə(r))
arch., poet., and dial. Forms: 1–4 bitre, bittre, bitere, 4 bittere, byttere, 2– bitter.
[OE. bitere, bitre, f. bitter a. with which it is now identified in form.]
= bitterly.
| 971 Blickl. Hom. 195 Hit weorþeþ þe swiþe bitere forᵹolden. a 1300 Sarmun xxxvii. in E.E.P. (1862) 5 Þou salt hit rew bitter and sore. 1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. xvii. 220 The biterour he shal a-bygge bote yf he [wel] worche. 1602 Shakes. Ham. i. i. 7 'Tis bitter cold, And I am sicke at heart. 1721 Cibber Doub. Gallant i. Sp. 63 [A servant says] ‘my Lady's bitter young and gamesome.’ 1824 Campbell Wound. Hussar, How bitter she wept o'er the victim of war! 1886 Stevenson Dr. Jekyll viii. 73 [A butler says] ‘This drug is wanted bitter bad, sir.’ |
▪ III. † ˈbitter, n.2 Obs.
[f. bit n.3 + -er1.]
One who has charge of a ‘bit’ or fire-bucket; a fireman.
| c 1467 E.E. Gilds 371 That the Bitters be redy when eny parylle of fuyre ys. Ibid. 382 That the bitters be redy with hur horses and bittes to brynge water. |
▪ IV. ˈbitter, n.3 Naut.
[f. bitt + -er (prob. as in header, rounder, cropper, whopper).]
(See quots.)
| 1627 Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. vii. 30 A Bitter is but the turne of a Cable about the Bits, and veare it out by little and little. And the Bitters end is that part of the Cable doth stay within boord. 1630 J. Taylor Wks. (N.) To let fall an anchor, which being done, the tide running very strong, brought our ship to so strong a bitter, that the fast which the Portugals had upon us brake. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. 103 A ship is ‘brought up to a bitter’ when the cable is allowed to run out to that stop..When a chain or rope is paid out to the bitter-end, no more remains to be let go. |
Hence, perh.bitter end: but cf. bitter a. 2 b.
▪ V. bitter, v.1
(ˈbɪtə(r))
[ME. bitt(e)re(n:—OE. biterian, f. biter, bitter a.; = OHG. bittaren, MHG. bittern to be bitter.]
† 1. intr. To be or become bitter. (Only in OE.)
| 897 K. ælfred Gregory's Past. 425 Ðætte us biteriᵹe sio hreowsung. |
2. trans. To make bitter; fig. to embitter (obs.).
| c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 23 A lutel ater bitteret[h] muchele swete. a 1225 Ancr. R. 308 Uour þinges, ȝif me þencheð..muwen makien him to seoruwen, & bittren his heorte. a 1619 M. Fotherby Atheom. i. xii. §5 (1622) 132 Men in sad taking, bitter'd with affliction. 1622 H. Sydenham Serm. Sol. Occ. (1637) 309 Shall I bitter vertue, & sweeten vice? 1713 Lond. & Country Brew. i. (1742) 7 Such hasty Dryings, or Scorchings, are also apt to bitter the Malt. 1815 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 5) IV. 131 This plant [Bog-bean] is used in the north of Europe to bitter the ale. |