▪ I. † ˈacrid, n. Obs.
[ad. Gr. ἀκρίδα (nom. ἀκρίς) locust.]
A locust.
One of the terms introduced by Cheke in attempting to give a closer version of the Greek N.T. Used by no one else.
| c 1550 Cheke Matt. iii. 4 His meat was acrids and wild honi. |
▪ II. acrid, a.
(ˈækrɪd)
[an irreg. and recent formation on L. ācri-s sharp, pungent (f. root ac-, in acute, acid, acerb) + -id, perh. in imitation of acid. Cf. Fr. âcre (in Cotgr. 1611). Preceded in 17th c. by acrimonious, also by acris unchanged, and the more regularly formed acrious.]
1. Bitter and hot or stinging to the taste, or having a similar effect upon the eyes, skin, and mucous membrane; bitterly pungent, irritating, corrosive.
| 1712 tr. Pomet's Hist. Drugs I. 221 Of an acrid astringent taste. 1732 Arbuthnot Rules of Diet 296 Stimulating Substances abounding with a pungent acrid Salt. 1764 Reid Inq. Hum. Mind vi. §21, 187 Gnawed and corroded by some acrid humour. 1784 Cowper Task i. 448 The mariner, his blood inflamed With acrid salts. 1830 Lindley Nat. Syst. Bot. 129 This resin is extremely acrid, causing excoriations and blisters if applied to the skin. 1856 Mrs. Browning Aurora Leigh 49 The sweat of labour in the early curse Has (turning acrid in six thousand years) Become the sweat of torture. 1868 Bain Ment. & Mor. Sc. 39 In the third class of tastes, there is present an element arising through the nerves of Touch..The acrid combines the fiery with the bitter. |
2. Bitterly irritating to the feelings; of bitter and irritating temper or manner. (Stronger than acrimonious.)
| [Not in Johnson 1773.] 1781 Cowper Charity 503 Their acrid temper turns, as soon as stirred, The milk of their good purpose all to curd. 1840 Carlyle Heroes 297 (1858) He was found, close at hand, to be no mean acrid man; but at heart a healthful, strong, sagacious man. 1850 Merivale Hist. Rom. Emp. VIII. lxiv. 129 (1865) Tacitus grows more acrid, more morbid in temper, even to the last. |