| 释义 |
bitter-, a. and adv. in combination.
1. adverbial and parasynthetic, as bitter-biting (biting bitterly), bitter-blessed, bitter-hearted, bitter-heartedness, bitter-pungent, bitter-rinded, bitter-tasted, bitter-well.
1749Fielding Tom Jones iv. ii, *Bitter-biting Eurus.
1786Burns Daisy iii, The *bitter-biting north.
1848Kingsley Saint's Trag. ii. xi. 135 The day I found the *bitter-blessed cross.
1775Adair Amer. Ind. 277 *Bitter-hearted foes.
Ibid. 43 Their word, which expresses ‘sharp,’ conveys the idea of *bitter-heartedness.
1884Browning Ferishtah 3 Sage-leaf is *bitter-pungent.
1831Carlyle Sart. Res. ii. ii. 107 A prickly, *bitter-rinded stone-fruit.
1850Mrs. Browning Poems II. 71 He laughed out *bitter-well.
2. (adj.) In many names of plants and other productions, some merely denoting a particular bitter variety of that to which the name is properly given, bitter almond, bitter bay, bitter beer (also fig.), bitter oak; in others specifying a distinct plant or substance, as bitter-apple (= bitter-gourd); bitter-ash, a West Indian tree, Simaruba excelsa; bitter bark, a popular name for any of various shrubs and small trees (see quots.); bitter-blain, a name given by the Dutch Creoles in Guiana to Vandellia diffusa (Treas. Bot.); bitter-cress, a book-name for the genus Cardamine, and esp. the species C. amara; bitter-cucumber or gourd, the Colocynth (Citrullus Colocynthus), a plant of the gourd family, which furnishes a well-known cathartic drug; bitter-cup, a cup made of quassia wood to impart some of its bitter principle to water poured into it; bitter-damson, a West Indian tree, Simaruba amara; bitter earth, magnesia; bitter-fitch (= bitter-vetch); bitter herb, the British plant Erythræa Centaurium; bitter-king, a tree, Soulamea amara, of the Eastern Archipelago, excessively bitter in all its parts; bitter-nut, the Swamp Hickory, Carya amara, of North America; also bitter-nut hickory; bitter root, a popular name for a plant of the species Apocynum androsæmifolium; also a plant of the N. American species Lewisia rediviva; (see also quot. 1909); bitter-vetch, a book-name for species of Lathyrus and Vicia formerly Orobus; † bitter-weed, obs. name of species of poplar, also, a N. American species of wormwood; bitter-wood, the timber of a tropical American genus of trees Xylopia, or the trees themselves; bitter-wort, species of gentian, esp. the Fell-wort (G. amarella); and in other general collocations, as bitter-ender colloq., one who fights or holds out ‘to the bitter end’ (see bitter a. 2 b); one who refuses to yield, give way, or compromise; hence bitter-enderism; bitter pit, a disease of apples, characterized by brown spots; † bitter-salt, obs. name of Epsom salts; bitter-spar, a mineral, a variety of dolomite; bitter-sweet, q.v.;
1632Massinger City Mad. iv. ii, Quite forget their powders And *bitter almonds.
1865Morn. Star 23 June, He gave the bearer half an ounce of powdered colocynth commonly called *bitter-apple.
1884W. Miller Dict. Eng. Names Plants 231/1 Pinckneya pubens, *bitter-bark-tree, Fever-tree of Georgia. 1889J. H. Maiden Native Plants Australia 198 Petalostigma quadriloculare, F.v.M...Bitter bark... The bark contains a very powerful bitter, said to have the same properties as cinchona. 1898Morris Austral Eng. 31/2 Bitter-bark, an Australian tree, Petalostigma quadriloculare,..N.O. Euphorbiaceæ... The name is also applied to Tabernæmontana orientalis..N.O. Apocyneæ, and to Alstonia constricta..N.O. Apocynaceæ. 1955Times 26 May 9/2 Alstonia constricta, or ‘bitter bark’, a new source of supply of the drug known as ‘reserpine’... Supplies have also been found in the roots of ‘bitter barks’ grown in India.
1755Smollett Quix. (1803) I. 98 Crowned with garlands of cypress and *bitter-bay.
1850Thackeray Pendennis II. xx. 200 The *bitter beer hot and undrinkable. 1871M. Collins Mrq. & Merch. I. vi. 161, I supped on..cold beef and bitter beer. 1890Kipling Barrack-room Ballads (1892) 4 ‘I've drunk 'is beer a score o' times,’ said Files-on-Parade. ‘'E's drinkin' bitter beer alone,’ the Colour-Sergeant said.
1876Harley Mat. Med. 675 *Bitter cups turned out of the wood are used as a ready means of furnishing the infusion.
1850Congress. Globe 12 Mar., App. 303 The disunionist looks forward to a southern confederacy; the *bitter-ender to the triumph of his party. 1906H. Spender General Botha vii. 127 In these discussions their leaders still proved the most obstinate ‘Bitter-enders’—just as now..they still resist most obstinately the mingling of their racial influence with that of the British stock. 1926Contemp. Rev. June 687 The trade union world lies shattered and in ruins [after the General Strike]. There is fierce controversy between volunteers, ‘scabs’, ‘hands-uppers’, and ‘bitter-enders’.
1918N.Y. Times 15 Sept. iii. 2/1 An unreasoning ‘*bitter enderism’.
1551Turner Herbal P iv a, *Bitter fitches, or bitter tares.
1585Lloyd Treas. Health G iv, Decoctyon of Lichepeasen or bitterfitch.
1755Gentl. Mag. XXV. 408 If we plant cucumbers..near the *bitter-gourd, the fruits of the first will be as bitter as gall.
1810Michaux Arbres i. 19 *Bitter nut hickery.., seul nom en usage dans N.Y. 1832D. J. Browne Sylva Amer. 170 This species is generally known in New Jersey by the name of Bitternut Hickory. Ibid., The inhabitants of New Jersey give it the name of Bitternut, which..indicates one of the peculiar properties of the fruit.
1898Agric. Gaz. N.S. Wales I. 683 *Bitter Pit. This disease appears in the form of small sunken brown pits having a bitter taste. 1960New Scientist 24 Nov. 1392/3 The incidence of bitter pit [in Australia]..has been reduced in a spectacular manner by spraying with calcium salts.
1838S. Parker Expl. Tour 204 The racine amère, or *bitter root, which grows on dry ground, fusiform, and though not pleasant to the taste, yet it is very conducive to health. 1909Cent. Dict. Suppl. 138/3 Natal bitter root, a climbing vine of the gourd family, Gerrardanthus macrorhiza, having tuberous roots..which are intensely bitter and are used by the natives in medicine. a1918G. Stuart 40 Years on Frontier (1925) I. 178 The wild flax and bitter-root are in full bloom. 1945B. MacDonald Egg & I (1946) 18 The bitter-root daisies, the Montana State flower.
1843Portlock Geol. 214 *Bitter spar, or Brown spar, occurs in small but well-defined crystals.
1661Lovell Hist. Anim. & Min. 44 The simples are Vineger, Betony..*bitter vetch with Wine.
1878in Britten & Holl. Plant-n. 45 Fir, saugh, and *bitterweed.
1597Gerard Herbal c. §4. 352 Named in English Felwoort Gentian; *Bitterwoort; Baldmoyne, and Baldmoney. |