bittersn.
/ˈbɪtəz/ 1. Bitter medicines generally, as Peruvian bark, quinine, etc.; spec. alcoholic (or other) liquors, impregnated with the extract of gentian, quassia, wormwood, orange peel, etc. and used as stomachics, anthelmintics, etc. (Also in singular: see bitter n.1 2.)
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the world > health and disease > healing > medicines or physic > [noun] > a medicine or medicament > bitter medicine
bitter1711
bitters1713
1713 R. Steele in Guardian 11 Aug. 1/2 Two Hogsheads of Bitters.
1784 J. Sims in Med. Communications 1 422 He took vomits, purgatives and bitters.
1822 J. Flint Lett. from Amer. 54 Some Americans drinking their morning's bitters (spirits with rice, wormwood, or other vegetable infusion).
1880 New Sydenham Soc. Lexicon at Bitters, Medicinal substances..distinguished into the aromatic, pure, and styptic bitters.
2. fig., esp. in U.S. colloq. phr. to get one's bitters: to get one's deserts. Obs.
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society > morality > dueness or propriety > [verb (intransitive)] > deserve well or ill > get one's deserts
to sow the wind and reap the whirlwindc1384
to drink to one's oysters1470
to serve (a person) right1587
to get the wissel of one's groat1721
to get one's fairing1787
to get one's bitters1812
to get one's faring1846
come1896
1812 in Maryland Hist. Mag. (1914) IX. 70 You might get your bitters in Baltimore Town.
1836 H. Smith Tin Trumpet I. 16 Misfortunes are moral bitters, which frequently restore the healthy tone of the mind.
a1846 in W. T. Porter Quarter Race Kentucky (1846) 194 The seal soon got his bitters, and the captin cut a big hunk off the tail eend.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1887; most recently modified version published online March 2016).
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n.1713