| Library / English Dictionary |
BITTERNESS
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A rough and bitter manner
Synonyms:
acerbity; acrimony; bitterness; jaundice; tartness; thorniness
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("bitterness" is a kind of...):
disagreeableness (an ill-tempered and offensive disposition)
Derivation:
bitter (marked by strong resentment or cynicism)
bitter (harsh or corrosive in tone)
Sense 2
Meaning:
The property of having a harsh unpleasant taste
Synonyms:
bitter; bitterness
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("bitterness" is a kind of...):
taste property (a property appreciated via the sense of taste)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "bitterness"):
acerbity (a sharp bitterness)
acridity; acridness (extreme bitterness)
Sense 3
Meaning:
The taste experience when quinine or coffee is taken into the mouth
Synonyms:
bitter; bitterness
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Hypernyms ("bitterness" is a kind of...):
gustatory perception; gustatory sensation; taste; taste perception; taste sensation (the sensation that results when taste buds in the tongue and throat convey information about the chemical composition of a soluble stimulus)
Sense 4
Meaning:
A feeling of deep and bitter anger and ill-will
Synonyms:
bitterness; gall; rancor; rancour; resentment
Classified under:
Nouns denoting feelings and emotions
Hypernyms ("bitterness" is a kind of...):
enmity; hostility; ill will (the feeling of a hostile person)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "bitterness"):
heartburning (intense resentment)
huffishness; sulkiness (a feeling of sulky resentment)
grievance; grudge; score (a resentment strong enough to justify retaliation)
enviousness; envy (a feeling of grudging admiration and desire to have something that is possessed by another)
Derivation:
bitter (proceeding from or exhibiting great hostility or animosity)
Context examples:
“Then you need no help from me,” said Nelson, with some bitterness.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
I am losing all my bitterness against spoilt children, my dearest Emma.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
Throughout there was a strange bitterness; an absence of consolatory gentleness; stern allusions to Calvinistic doctrines—election, predestination, reprobation—were frequent; and each reference to these points sounded like a sentence pronounced for doom.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Catherine was complimented out of further bitterness.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
Simple Alleyne opened his eyes at this little spurt of feminine bitterness.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Von Bork smiled with some bitterness.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
We all acknowledged that we felt this something of a disappointment; but Mrs. Gummidge said she felt it more than we did, and shed tears again, and made that former declaration with great bitterness.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
After the first bitterness of the conviction of being slighted was over, she had been tolerably soon in a fair way of not thinking of him again; and when the acquaintance was renewed in town, and Mr. Rushworth's house became Crawford's object, she had had the merit of withdrawing herself from it, and of chusing that time to pay a visit to her other friends, in order to secure herself from being again too much attracted.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
In such a frame of mind as she was now in, Elinor had no difficulty in obtaining from her whatever promise she required; and at her request, Marianne engaged never to speak of the affair to any one with the least appearance of bitterness;—to meet Lucy without betraying the smallest increase of dislike to her;—and even to see Edward himself, if chance should bring them together, without any diminution of her usual cordiality.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
Mrs Smith had been carried away from her first direction, and Anne had forgotten, in the interest of her own family concerns, how much had been originally implied against him; but her attention was now called to the explanation of those first hints, and she listened to a recital which, if it did not perfectly justify the unqualified bitterness of Mrs Smith, proved him to have been very unfeeling in his conduct towards her; very deficient both in justice and compassion.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
