Forms: 1–4 biter, 1– bitter. (Also 1 bitor, -yr, bittor, 3 Orm. bitterr, 3–5 bittir, -ur, 4 byter, 4–5 byttyr, 4–6 bytter, 5 -ir, -ur, bittyr. Definite 1–4 bitre, 1–5 bittre.) [Com. Teut.: OE. biter = OS. and OHG. bittar, ON. bitr (MDu., Du., MHG., mod.G., Sw., Da. bitter), Goth. (with different vowel) baitrs; prob. f. root of bîtan to BITE, with the original meaning ‘biting, cutting, sharp,’ but within the historical period only used of taste, and in modern use no longer even ‘biting’ or ‘acrid’ in taste: see sense 1.]
A. adj.
1. One of the elementary sensations of taste proper (i.e., without any element arising through the nerves of touch): obnoxious, irritating, or unfavorably stimulating to the gustatory nerve; disagreeable to the palate; having the characteristic taste of wormwood, gentian, quinine, bitter aloes, soot: the opposite of sweet; causing ‘the proper pain of taste’ (Bain).
a. 1000. Guthlac (Gr.), 840. Þone bitran drync.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 129. Ðet weter of egipte … þe wes sur and bitere.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 6349. Water bitter sum ani brin.
c. 1400. Maundev., viii. 99. A lytille Broke of Watre, that was wont to ben byttre.
1591. Shaks., Two Gent., II. iv. 149. When I was sick, you gaue me bitter pils.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 21. The Second [water will have] more of the Tast, as more bitter or Biting.
1756. Burke, Subl. & B., Introd. Wks. I. 100. All men are agreed to call vinegar sour, honey sweet, and aloes bitter.
1868. Bain, Mental & Mor. Sci., I. ii. 38. Taste proper comprehends Sweet and Bitter tastes. Ibid., 39. The acrid combines the fiery with the bitter.
1884. Cornh. Mag., 628. Bitter things in nature … are almost invariably poisonous.
b. fig. Unpalatable to the mind; unpleasant and hard to ‘swallow’ or admit.
1810. Coleridge, Friend (1865), 166. Some bitter truths, respecting our military arrangements.
2. transf. Of anything that has to be ‘tasted’ or endured: Attended by severe pain or suffering; sore to be borne; grievous, painful, full of affliction.
971. Blickl. Hom., 229. Þu me ne syle on þone biterestan deað.
c. 1205. Lay., 9685. Her heo sculeð ibiden bitterest alre baluwen.
c. 1340. Cursor M., 4827 (Trin.). For bittur hongur þat is bifalle.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, VI. 2502. Soche bargens are bytter þat hafe a bare end.
1583. Stanyhurst, Æneis, II. (Arb.), 65. Soom Greeks shal find yt bitter, before al we be slaghtred.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, xxvi. The time of separation now approached. It was a bitter moment.
1839. Thirlwall, Greece, VII. 285. For Eurydice she still reserved what she thought a bitterer death.
1850. Tennyson, In Mem., VI. That loss is common, would not make My own less bitter, rather more.
b. To the bitter end: to the last and direst extremity; to death itself. So commonly used: but the history is doubtful: see BITTER sb.3
3. Hence, of a state: Intensely grievous or full of affliction; mournful; pitiable.
c. 1485. Digby Myst., III. 997. Thys sorow is beytterar þan ony galle.
1588. Shaks., Tit. A., V. iii. 89. Nor can I vtter all our bitter griefe.
1611. Bible, Job iii. 20. Wherefore is light giuen to him that is in misery, and life vnto the bitter in soule?
1816. Wordsw., White Doe, II. 115. Concealing In solitude her bitter feeling.
† b. ‘Sour,’ morose, peevish. Obs.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 118. Azein bittre ancren Dauid seið þis uers.
4. Expressing or betokening intense grief, misery, or affliction of spirit.
c. 1230. Hali Meid., 43. Marie Magdalene wið bittre wopes bireowseð hare gultes.
c. 1330. Arth. & Merl., 1018. His moder … swithe bitter ters lete.
1611. Bible, Gen. xxvii. 34. Esau … cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry.
1650. R. Stapylton, Strada’s Low-C. Warres, II. 29. No complaints were bitterer then the Abbots and Monks.
1853. Kingsley, Hypatia, iv. 42. Bursting into bitter tears.
1884. (title) ‘The Bitter Cry of Outcast London.’
† 5. Causing pain or suffering; injurious, baleful, cruel, severe. Obs.
a. 1000. Beowulf, 5377. Draca … heals ealne ymbefeng biteran bánum.
a. 1225. St. Marher., 11. Þet balefulle wurm ant þet bittre best.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 697. Þe nedder was noght bitter.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron., 35. He tok bittere Estrild, dukes douhter Orgare.
1603. Shaks., Meas. for M., IV. ii. 81. It is a bitter Deputie.
1635. N. R., Camden’s Hist. Eliz., II. 183. The government of the French was bitter.
b. of instruments of torture.
a. 1225. Juliana, 17. Ibeaten wið bittere besmen.
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., I. i. 27. Nail’d For our aduantage on the bitter Crosse.
6. Characterized by intense animosity or virulence of feeling or action; virulent.
971. Blickl. Hom., 25. Onbærnde mid þære biteran æfeste.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XVIII. 64. For a bitter bataille … Lyf and deth in þis derknesse her one fordoth her other.
1382. Wyclif, James iii. 14. If ȝe han bittir zeel, or enuy, and striuynges ben in ȝoure hertis.
1655. Fuller, Ch. Hist., III. 44. No medium betwixt not loving and bitter hating.
1737. Whiston, Josephus’ Hist., II. iii. § 1. Sabinus … made a bitter search after the kings money.
1838. Macaulay, in Trevelyan, Life (1876), I. vii. 9. In politics a bitter partisan. Ibid. (1848), Hist. Eng., I. 446. The bitter animosity of James.
b. Const. to, against.
1382. Wyclif, Col. iii. 19. Men, loue ȝe ȝoure wyues, and nyle ȝe be bitter to hem [1611 against them].
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., IV. i. 67. You are too bitter to your countrywoman.
1833. Ht. Martineau, Tale of Tyne, i. 20. She had … been bitter against them.
7. Of words (or the person who utters them): Stinging, cutting, harsh, keenly or cruelly reproachful, virulent.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 95. He ne remde ne of bitere speche nes.
c. 1200. Ormin, 9786. Fulle off bitterr spæche.
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie (Arb.), 41. To taxe the common abuses and vice of the people in rough and bitter speaches.
1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., II. v. 69. As fast as she answeres thee with frowning lookes, ile sauce her with bitter words. Ibid. (1605), Lear, I. iv. 150. A bitter Foole!
1611. Bible, Job xiii. 26. For thou writest bitter things against mee.
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 433, ¶ 6. They would reproach a Man in the most bitter Terms.
1828. Carlyle, Misc. (1857), I. 124. Faust is no longer the same bitter and contemptuous man.
8. Of wind, cold, etc.: Sharp, keen, cutting, severe; hence of the weather: Bitingly cold.
1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., II. vii. 184. Freize, freize, thou bitter skie.
1667. Boyle, Orig. Formes & Qual. The Night proving very bitter … I found the Glasse crack’d … by the violence of the Frost.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 466. To fend the bitter Cold.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., II. 308. The frosts are consequently bitter in winter.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev. (1871), III. V. ii. 180. A cold bitter drizzling rain.
1875. M. Pattison, Casaubon, 255. He caught his death in the boat on a bitter Palm Sunday.
B. quasi-sb.1
1. That which is bitter; bitterness. lit. and fig.
a. 1000. Elene (Gr.), 1245. Weorcum fah, synnum asæled, sorʓum ʓewæled, bitrum ʓebunden.
a. 1240. Lofsong, in Lamb. Hom., 215. Euer bið ðet swete abouht mid twofold of bittre.
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. V. 99. Þat al my breste Bolleþ · for bitter of my galle.
1690. Locke, Hum. Und., II. xxi. A little bitter mingled in our Cup, leaves no relish of the sweet.
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, III. vi. Surfeited with the sweets of marriage, or disgusted by its bitters.
1830. Tennyson, Dream Fair Wom., 286. All words … Failing to give the bitter of the sweet.
2. A bitter medicinal substance: now usually in pl. BITTERS, q.v.
1711. Swift, Lett. (1767), III. 101. I still drink Dr. Radcliffe’s bitter.
1711. Vind. Sacheverell, 63. He … might … be provok’d to mix a little Bitter with his Wine.
Mod. Camomile yields a useful bitter.
C. Comb.: see after the adv.
