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to bitter

to bitter

1 6.7
To make something have a sharp taste or cause strong negative feelings
  • verb
  • /ˈbɪtər/
translation icon : amargar
  • Adding too many overcooked vegetables will only bitter the soup's flavor.

Examples

  • Fuck you, you bitter old queen.

  • Stony the road we trod Bitter the chastening rod Felt in the days When hope unborn had died Yet with a steady beat Have not our weary feet Come to the place For which our fathers sighed?

  • The lemon juice will bitter the dish if you add too much.

  • The strong coffee began to bitter my mood, reminding me of the stressful day I had.

Synonyms

to acerbate
vsto bitter
9.9

To make a taste, situation, or feeling more bitter

also covers becoming sour or feeling resentful, not only causing it

Antonyms

25 3.0

Make food taste sweeter by adding sugar or make an offer more attractive

Idioms

The final part of a difficult situation that ends badly

8 5.5

Keep doing something until it is completely finished, even when it is very hard

2 6.8

An unpleasant fact or event that is hard to accept

Compounds

bitter end
  • Informal
9 5.6

The final, most difficult part of something that you keep doing until it ends

A type of almond with poisonous nuts used to make oil for flavor or medicine

1 9.9

A strong plant medicine that makes you go to the toilet to empty your bowels

A very dark chocolate with little or no sugar used for baking and sauces

A hickory tree with leaves that have seven or nine small parts and thin shelled nuts that taste very bitter

A fizzy drink with a tart, slightly bitter lemon taste

A tree that produces sour oranges used for marmalade and grafting

A small, very sour orange used to make marmalade and flavoring

A type of orange tree that produces small sour fruit and is used for grafting and marmalade

bitter pea
  • Australian
9.9

Australian spiny shrubs with yellow flowers and triangular seeds

bitter pecan
  • Specialized
8.3

A hickory-like tree that grows in the southern United States with many narrow leaves and bitter nuts

bitter pignut
  • Specialized
9.9

A tree in the eastern United States with leaves of seven or nine small parts and thin, very bitter nuts

bitter principle
  • Specialized
8.9

A plant chemical with a very bitter taste used in some medicines

bitter salts
  • Specialized
6.8

A white salt taken by mouth to relieve heartburn and constipation and sometimes given by injection to prevent seizures

bitter spar
  • Specialized
9.9

A pale mineral containing calcium and magnesium that people use to make ceramics, get magnesium and improve soil

bitter-bark
  • Specialized
9.9

A small shrub with large pink sepals that people use as medicine for fever

An oil from bitter almonds that people use to add an almond smell or taste to food and perfume

9.9

A European plant like a pea that lives many years and can poison animals

9.0

A type of cassava with bitter roots that contain poison and must be processed before eating

A small wild plant with divided leaves and tiny white, pink or purple flowers often in lawns

9.4

A plant with broad, rounded leaves and a bitter root that often grows as a weed

bitter end
  • Specialized
9.9

The inner end of a rope or chain that is fastened to a ship

bitter floom
  • Archaic
9.9

A marsh plant with pink flowers that grows in the eastern United States

How Bitter

poison
94 3.5
to embitter
5 6.8
to bitter
1 6.7
to taint
126 7.3

Surface Forms

bitter infinitive
bittered past
bittered past participle
bittering present participle
bitters third person singular

Etymology

Bitter (verb) The verb bitter comes from the same root as bite, meaning 'to bite', and so to bitter something is to make it sharp in taste or to cause a lasting, painful feeling like a 'bite'.