| 释义 |
▪ I. bitter, a. and n.1|ˈbɪtə(r)|
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. a. One of the elementary sensations of taste proper (i.e. without any element arising through the nerves of touch): obnoxious, irritating, or unfavourably 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).
a1000Guthlac (Gr.) 840 Þone bitran drync. c1175Lamb. Hom. 129 Ðet weter of egipte..þe wes sur and bitere. a1300Cursor M. 6349 Water bitter sum ani brin. c1400Mandeville viii. 99 A lytille Broke of Watre, that was wont to ben byttre. 1591Shakes. Two Gent. ii. iv. 149 When I was sick, you gaue me bitter pils. 1626Bacon Sylva §21 The Second [water will have] more of the Tast, as more bitter or Biting. 1756Burke Subl. & B. Introd. Wks. I. 100 All men are agreed to call vinegar sour, honey sweet, and aloes bitter. 1868Bain Ment. & Mor. Sc. i. ii. 38 Taste proper comprehends sweet and bitter tastes..The acrid combines the fiery with the bitter. 1884Cornh. Mag. 628 Bitter things in nature..are almost invariably poisonous.
b. fig. Unpalatable to the mind; unpleasant and hard to ‘swallow’ or admit.
1810Coleridge Friend (1865) 166 Some bitter truths, respecting our military arrangements.
c. bitter lake = salt lake (see salt n.1); spec. as the name of certain lakes in Egypt; (see also quot. 1882).
1843E. Clarkson Suez Navigable Canal 7 The Bitter Lakes would fill up at any time from the Red Sea. 1882A. Geikie Text-bk. Geol. iii. ii. 395 Saline lakes, considered chemically, may be grouped as salt lakes, where the chief constituents are sodium and magnesium chlorides with magnesium and calcium sulphates: and bitter lakes, which usually are distinguished by their large percentage of sodium carbonate as well as chloride and sulphate. 1957Encycl. Brit. XXI. 517/2 Finally in the summer of 1869 the waters of the Mediterranean and the Red Sea were united [by the Suez Canal] in the Bitter lakes.
2. transf.
a. Of anything that has to be ‘tasted’ or endured: Attended by severe pain or suffering; sore to be borne; grievous, painful, full of affliction.
971Blickl. Hom. 229 Þu me ne syle on þone biterestan deað. c1205Lay. 9685 Her heo sculeð ibiden bitterest alre baluwen. c1340Cursor M. 4827 (Trin.) For bittur hongur þat is bifalle. c1400Destr. Troy vi. 2502 Soche bargens are bytter þat hafe a bare end. 1583Stanyhurst æneis ii. (Arb.) 65 Soom Greeks shal find yt bitter, before al we be slaghtred. 1828Scott F.M. Perth xxvi, The time of separation now approached. It was a bitter moment. 1839Thirlwall Greece VII. 285 For Eurydice she still reserved what she thought a bitterer death. 1850Tennyson 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 n.3 Cf. Bible Prov. v. 4.
1849Congress. Globe 12 Dec. 23, I am unfortunately among those who voted for the gentleman from Indiana, even ‘to the bitter end’. 1850Ibid. 9 Apr., App. 434 Our defence is a just one, and will be maintained by us to the ‘bitter end’. 1921L. Strachey Q. Victoria vi. 210 He would go on, working to the utmost and striving for the highest, to the bitter end. 1955G. Greene Loser takes All i. ix. 62 A wife ought to believe in her husband to the bitter end.
3. a. Hence, of a state: Intensely grievous or full of affliction; mournful; pitiable.
c1485Digby Myst. iii. 997 Thys sorow is beytterar þan ony galle. 1588Shakes. Tit. A. v. iii. 89 Nor can I vtter all our bitter griefe. 1611Bible Job iii. 20 Wherefore is light giuen to him that is in misery, and life vnto the bitter in soule? 1816Wordsw. White Doe ii. 115 Concealing In solitude her bitter feeling.
†b. ‘Sour,’ morose, peevish. Obs.
a1225Ancr. R. 118 Aȝein bittre ancren Dauid seið þis uers.
4. Expressing or betokening intense grief, misery, or affliction of spirit.
c1230Hali Meid. 43 Marie Magdalene wið bittre wopes bireowseð hare gultes. c1330Arth. & Merl. 1018 His moder..swithe bitter ters lete. 1611Bible Gen. xxvii. 34 Esau..cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry. 1650R. Stapylton Strada's Low-C. Warres ii. 29 No complaints were bitterer then the Abbots and Monks. 1853Kingsley Hypatia iv. 42 Bursting into bitter tears. 1884(title) ‘The Bitter Cry of Outcast London.’
†5.
a. Causing pain or suffering; injurious, baleful, cruel, severe. Obs.
a1000Beowulf 5377 Draca..heals ealne ymbefeng biteran bánum. a1225St. Marher. 11 Þet balefulle wurm ant þet bittre best. a1300Cursor M. 697 Þe nedder was noght bitter. 1330R. Brunne Chron. 35 He tok bittere Estrild, dukes douhter Orgare. 1603Shakes. Meas. for M. iv. ii. 81 It is a bitter Deputie. 1635N. R. Camden's Hist. Eliz. ii. 183 The government of the French was bitter.
b. of instruments of torture.
a1225Juliana 17 Ibeaten wið bittere besmen. 1596Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, i. i. 27 Nail'd For our aduantage on the bitter Crosse.
6. a. Characterized by intense animosity or virulence of feeling or action; virulent.
971Blickl. Hom. 25 Onbærnde mid þære biteran æfeste. 1377Langl. P. Pl. B. xviii. 64 For a bitter bataille..Lyf and deth in þis derknesse her one fordoth her other. 1382Wyclif James iii. 14 If ȝe han bittir zeel, or enuy, and striuynges ben in ȝoure hertis. 1655Fuller Ch. Hist. iii. 44 No medium betwixt not loving and bitter hating. 1737Whiston Josephus' Hist. ii. iii. §1 Sabinus..made a bitter search after the kings money. 1838Macaulay in Trevelyan Life (1876) I. vii. 9 In politics a bitter partisan. 1848― Hist. Eng. I. 446 The bitter animosity of James.
b. Const. to, against.
1382Wyclif Col. iii. 19 Men, loue ȝe ȝoure wyues, and nyle ȝe be bitter to hem [1611 against them]. 1606Shakes. Tr. & Cr. iv. i. 67 You are too bitter to your country⁓woman. 1833H. 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.
c1175Lamb. Hom. 95 He ne remde ne of bitere speche nes. c1200Ormin 9786 Fulle off bitterr spæche. 1589Puttenham Eng. Poesie (Arb.) 41 To taxe the common abuses and vice of the people in rough and bitter speaches. 1600Shakes. A.Y.L. iii. v. 69 As fast as she answeres thee with frowning lookes, ile sauce her with bitter words. 1605― Lear i. iv. 150 A bitter Foole! 1611Bible Job xiii. 26 For thou writest bitter things against mee. 1712Addison Spect. No. 433 ⁋6 They would reproach a Man in the most bitter Terms. 1828Carlyle 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.
1600Shakes. A.Y.L. ii. vii. 184 Freize, freize, thou bitter skie. 1667Boyle Orig. Formes & Qual., The Night proving very bitter..I found the Glasse crack'd..by the violence of the Frost. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 466 To fend the bitter Cold. 1796Morse Amer. Geog. II. 308 The frosts are consequently bitter in winter. 1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. (1871) III. v. ii. 180 A cold bitter drizzling rain. 1875M. Pattison Casaubon 255 He caught his death in the boat on a bitter Palm Sunday.
B. quasi-n.1
1. a. That which is bitter; bitterness. lit. and fig.
a1000Elene (Gr.) 1245 Weorcum fah, synnum asæled, sorᵹum ᵹewæled, bitrum ᵹebunden. a1240Lofsong in Lamb. Hom. 215 Euer bið ðet swete abouht mid twofold of bittre. 1362Langl. P. Pl. A. v. 99 Þat al my breste Bolleþ · for bitter of my galle. 1690Locke Hum. Und. ii. xxi, A little bitter mingled in our Cup, leaves no relish of the sweet. 1749Fielding Tom Jones iii. vi, Surfeited with the sweets of marriage, or disgusted by its bitters. 1830Tennyson Dream Fair Women 286 All words..Failing to give the bitter of the sweet.
b. A bitter part.
1860O. W. Holmes Prof. Breakf.-t. iv. 104 When you can get the bitter out of the partridge's thigh, you can make an enlightened commonwealth of Indians.
2. A bitter medicinal substance: now usually in pl. bitters, q.v.
1711Swift Lett. (1767) III. 101, I still drink Dr. Radcliffe's bitter. 1711Vind. Sacheverell 63 He..might..be provok'd to mix a little Bitter with his Wine. Mod. Camomile yields a useful bitter.
3. (A glass of) bitter beer. colloq.
1857‘C. Bede’ Verdant Green Married x. 78 Mr. Verdant Green and Mr. Bouncer..turned into the coffee-room of ‘The Mitre’ to ‘do bitters’, as Mr. Bouncer phrased the act of drinking bitter beer. 1862Trollope Rachel Ray I. iii. 41 Going into Parliament..just as they pleased, like the modern heroes of the bitter cask. 1865Hotten Slang Dict., Bitters, ‘to do bitters’, to drink beer.— Oxford. 1874Ibid. s.v., ‘To do a bitter’, to drink beer.—Originally Oxford, but now general. 1894G. Moore Esther Waters xxx. 236 A dozen pots of beer..and a few glasses of bitter. 1896H. G. Wells Wheels of Chance ix, Every public-house..meant a lemonade and a dash of bitter. Ibid. xviii, A lemonade and bitter, please. 1901Westm. Gaz. 8 June 6/3 A bitter having been brought, he quaffed it to his second's health. 1942Penguin New Writing XIV. 133 The barmaid..replied there was nothing left but bitter and old-and-mild.
C. Comb.: see after the adv.
▪ II. bitter, adv.|ˈbɪtə(r)|
arch., poet., and dial. Forms: 1–4 bitre, bittre, bitere, 4 bittere, byttere, 2– bitter.
[OE. bitere, bitre, f. bitter a. with which it is now identified in form.]
= bitterly.
971Blickl. Hom. 195 Hit weorþeþ þe swiþe bitere forᵹolden. a1300Sarmun xxxvii. in E.E.P. (1862) 5 Þou salt hit rew bitter and sore. 1393Langl. P. Pl. C. xvii. 220 The biterour he shal a-bygge bote yf he [wel] worche. 1602Shakes. Ham. i. i. 7 'Tis bitter cold, And I am sicke at heart. 1721Cibber Doub. Gallant i. Sp. 63 [A servant says] ‘my Lady's bitter young and gamesome.’ 1824Campbell Wound. Hussar, How bitter she wept o'er the victim of war! 1886Stevenson Dr. Jekyll viii. 73 [A butler says] ‘This drug is wanted bitter bad, sir.’
▪ III. † ˈbitter, n.2 Obs.
[f. bit n.3 + -er1.]
One who has charge of a ‘bit’ or fire-bucket; a fireman.
c1467E.E. Gilds 371 That the Bitters be redy when eny parylle of fuyre ys. Ibid. 382 That the bitters be redy with hur horses and bittes to brynge water.
▪ IV. ˈbitter, n.3 Naut.
[f. bitt + -er (prob. as in header, rounder, cropper, whopper).]
(See quots.)
1627Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. vii. 30 A Bitter is but the turne of a Cable about the Bits, and veare it out by little and little. And the Bitters end is that part of the Cable doth stay within boord. 1630J. Taylor Wks. (N.) To let fall an anchor, which being done, the tide running very strong, brought our ship to so strong a bitter, that the fast which the Portugals had upon us brake. 1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. 103 A ship is ‘brought up to a bitter’ when the cable is allowed to run out to that stop..When a chain or rope is paid out to the bitter-end, no more remains to be let go.
Hence, perh.bitter end: but cf. bitter a. 2 b.
▪ V. bitter, v.1|ˈbɪtə(r)|
[ME. bitt(e)re(n:—OE. biterian, f. biter, bitter a.; = OHG. bittaren, MHG. bittern to be bitter.]
†1. intr. To be or become bitter. (Only in OE.)
897K. ælfred Gregory's Past. 425 Ðætte us biteriᵹe sio hreowsung.
2. trans. To make bitter; fig. to embitter (obs.).
c1175Lamb. Hom. 23 A lutel ater bitteret[h] muchele swete. a1225Ancr. R. 308 Uour þinges, ȝif me þencheð..muwen makien him to seoruwen, & bittren his heorte. a1619M. Fotherby Atheom. i. xii. §5 (1622) 132 Men in sad taking, bitter'd with affliction. 1622H. Sydenham Serm. Sol. Occ. (1637) 309 Shall I bitter vertue, & sweeten vice? 1713Lond. & Country Brew. i. (1742) 7 Such hasty Dryings, or Scorchings, are also apt to bitter the Malt. 1815Encycl. Brit. (ed. 5) IV. 131 This plant [Bog-bean] is used in the north of Europe to bitter the ale. |