Bit·ter a.
1. Having a peculiar, acrid, biting taste, like that of wormwood or an infusion of hops; as, a bitter medicine; bitter as aloes.
2. Causing pain or smart; piercing; painful; sharp; severe; as, a bitter cold day.
3. Causing, or fitted to cause, pain or distress to the mind; calamitous; poignant.
It is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God. --Jer. ii. 19.
4. Characterized by sharpness, severity, or cruelty; harsh; stern; virulent; as, bitter reproach.
Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them. --Col. iii. 19.
5. Mournful; sad; distressing; painful; pitiable.
The Egyptians . . . made their lives bitter with hard bondage. --Ex. i. 14.
Bitter apple, Bitter cucumber, Bitter gourd. Bot. See Colocynth.
Bitter cress Bot., a plant of the genus Cardamine, esp. Cardamine amara.
Bitter earth Min., tale earth; calcined magnesia.
Bitter principles Chem., a class of substances, extracted from vegetable products, having strong bitter taste but with no sharply defined chemical characteristics.
Bitter salt, Epsom salts; magnesium sulphate.
Bitter vetch Bot., a name given to two European leguminous herbs, Vicia Orobus and Ervum Ervilia.
To the bitter end, to the last extremity, however calamitous.
Syn: -- Acrid; sharp; harsh; pungent; stinging; cutting; severe; acrimonious.
Cress n.; pl. Cresses Bot. A plant of various species, chiefly cruciferous. The leaves have a moderately pungent taste, and are used as a salad and antiscorbutic.
Note: ☞ The garden cress, called also peppergrass, is the Lepidium sativum; the water cress is the Nasturtium officinale. Various other plants are sometimes called cresses.
To strip the brook with mantling cresses spread. --Goldsmith.
Bitter cress. See under Bitter.
Not worth a cress, or not worth a kers.” a common old proverb, now turned into the meaningless “not worth a curse.”
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bitter cress
n : any of various herbs of the genus Cardamine, having usually
pinnate leaves and racemes of white, pink or purple
flowers; cosmopolitan except Antarctic [syn: bittercress]