%bitter%

n. Any substance that is bitter. See Bitters. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To make bitter. Wolcott. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ See Bitts. ] (Naut.) AA turn of the cable which is round the bitts. [ 1913 Webster ]

Bitter end, that part of a cable which is abaft the bitts, and so within board, when the ship rides at anchor. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) the butterbump or bittern. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. any of various herbs of the genus Cardamine, having usually pinnate leaves and racemes of white, pink or purple flowers; cosmopolitan except in the Antarctic.
Syn. -- bitter cress. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

a. Full of bitterness. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A bitter compound used in adulterating beer; bittern. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Somewhat bitter. Goldsmith. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ G. ] (Zool.) A roachlike European fish (Rhodima amarus). [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. In a bitter manner. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OE. bitoure, betore, bitter, fr. F. butor; of unknown origin. ] (Zool.) A wading bird of the genus Botaurus, allied to the herons, of various species. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ The common European bittern is Botaurus stellaris. It makes, during the brooding season, a noise called by Dryden bumping, and by Goldsmith booming. The American bittern is Botaurus lentiginosus, and is also called stake-driver and meadow hen. See Stake-driver. [ 1913 Webster ]

The name is applied to other related birds, as the least bittern (Ardetta exilis), and the sun bittern. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ From Bitter, a. ] 1. The brine which remains in salt works after the salt is concreted, having a bitter taste from the chloride of magnesium which it contains. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A very bitter compound of quassia, cocculus Indicus, etc., used by fraudulent brewers in adulterating beer. Cooley. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ AS. biternys; biter better + -nys = -ness. ] 1. The quality or state of being bitter, sharp, or acrid, in either a literal or figurative sense; implacableness; resentfulness; severity; keenness of reproach or sarcasm; deep distress, grief, or vexation of mind. [ 1913 Webster ]

The lip that curls with bitterness. Percival. [ 1913 Webster ]

I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. Job vii. 11. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A state of extreme impiety or enmity to God. [ 1913 Webster ]

Thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity. Acts viii. 23. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Dangerous error, or schism, tending to draw persons to apostasy. [ 1913 Webster ]

Looking diligently, . . . lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you. Heb. xii. 15. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Bot.) The swamp hickory (Carya amara). Its thin-shelled nuts are bitter. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Bot.) A plant (Lewisia rediviva) allied to the purslane, but with fleshy, farinaceous roots, growing in the mountains of Idaho, Montana, etc. It gives the name to the Bitter Root mountains and river. The Indians call both the plant and the river Spæt'lum. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. pl. A liquor, generally spirituous in which a bitter herb, leaf, or root is steeped. [ 1913 Webster ]

A common name of dolomite; -- so called because it contains magnesia, the soluble salts of which are bitter. See Dolomite. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Sweet and then bitter or bitter and then sweet; esp. sweet with a bitter after taste; hence (Fig.), pleasant but painful. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. Anything which is bittersweet. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A kind of apple so called. Gower. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Bot.) (a) A climbing shrub, with oval coral-red berries (Solanum dulcamara); woody nightshade. The whole plant is poisonous, and has a taste at first sweetish and then bitter. The branches are the officinal dulcamara. (b) An American woody climber (Celastrus scandens), whose yellow capsules open late in autumn, and disclose the red aril which covers the seeds; -- also called Roxbury waxwork. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Bot.) A species of Ambrosia (Ambrosia artemisiæfolia); Roman worm wood. Gray. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A West Indian tree (Picræna excelsa) from the wood of which the bitter drug Jamaica quassia is obtained. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Bot.) The yellow gentian (Gentiana lutea), which has a very bitter taste. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To free from [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ Pref. dis- + imbitter. Cf. Disembitter. ] To free from bitterness. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To make bitter or sad. See Imbitter. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The act of embittering; also, that which embitters. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Imbittered p. pr. & vb. n. Imbittering. ] [ Pref. im- in + bitter. Cf. Embitter. ] [ Written also embitter. ] To make bitter; hence, to make distressing or more distressing; to make sad, morose, sour, or malignant. [ 1913 Webster ]

Is there anything that more imbitters the enjoyment of this life than shame? South. [ 1913 Webster ]

Imbittered against each other by former contests. Bancroft. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who, or that which, imbitters. [ 1913 Webster ]