bitterness
nounUK /ˈbɪtənəs/
Etymology From Middle English bitternesse, biternesse, from Old English biternes (“bitterness; grief”), equivalent to bitter + -ness.
1
The quality of having a bitter taste.
2
The quality of feeling bitter; acrimony, resentment; the quality of exhibiting such feelings.
- the bitterness of his words
- She kept her bitterness about her mistreatment for the rest of her life.
3 more examples
- It is now time for the opposition to the Annexation of Texas to cease, all further agitation of the waters of bitterness and strife, at least in connexion with this question,–even though it may perhaps be required of us as a necessary condition of the freedom of our institutions, that we must live on for ever in a state of unpausing struggle and excitement upon some subject of party division or other.1845 July and August, John O’Sullivan, “Annexation”, in United States Magazine and Democratic Review, volume 17, number 1, archived from the original on 04 Jul 2024, page 1:
- She suspected that during the summer her father had mentioned Brian’s windfall to Billy and that father and son had then traded snidenesses and bitternesses about the W—— Corporation and bourgeois Robin and leisure-class Brian.2001, Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections:
- Speaking of the guest list, though, it is most disappointing to find some of the third tier European princelings unable to hide their bitterness at being NFI.2011 April 23, Marina Hyde, “Royal wedding: third tier European princeling is bitter at being NFI”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 06 May 2021:
3
The quality of eliciting a bitter, humiliating or harsh feeling.
- Nothing could assuage the bitterness of their defeat.
4
Harsh cold.
- The bitterness of the winter caught us all by surprise.
- Synonyms
- acerbicness, acridity, acridness, acrimony, gall, rancor, resentment, bile, acerbity, alkalinity, astringency, bitterness, wormwood
- Antonyms
- sweetness
- Related terms
- bitter
- Hypernyms
- flavour
- Holonyms
- five basic tastes