Bitter vs Sour - What's the difference?
bitter | sour |
Having an acrid taste (usually from a basic substance).
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*
*:Long after his cigar burnt bitter , he sat with eyes fixed on the blaze. When the flames at last began to flicker and subside, his lids fluttered, then drooped?; but he had lost all reckoning of time when he opened them again to find Miss Erroll in furs and ball-gown kneeling on the hearth.
Harsh, piercing or stinging.
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*1999 , (Neil Gaiman), Stardust , p.31 (Perennial paperback edition)
*:It was at the end of February,.
Hateful or hostile.
:
*(Bible), (w) iii. 19
*:Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.
Cynical and resentful.
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(usually in the plural bitters) A liquid or powder, made from bitter herbs, used in mixed drinks or as a tonic.
* 1773 , Oliver Goldsmith,
A type of beer heavily flavored with hops.
(nautical) A turn of a cable about the bitts.
Having an acidic, sharp or tangy taste.
* Francis Bacon
Made rancid by fermentation, etc.
Tasting or smelling rancid.
Peevish or bad-tempered.
* Shakespeare
(of soil) Excessively acidic and thus infertile.
(of petroleum) Containing excess sulfur.
Unfortunate or unfavorable.
* Shakespeare
* {{quote-news
, year=2011
, date=October 1
, author=Phil Dawkes
, title=Sunderland 2 - 2 West Brom
, work=BBC Sport
The sensation of a sour taste.
A drink made with whiskey, lemon or lime juice and sugar.
(label) Any cocktail containing lemon or lime juice.
A sour or acid substance; whatever produces a painful effect.
(label) To make sour.
(label) To become sour.
* Jonathan Swift
(label) To make disenchanted.
* Shakespeare
(label) To become disenchanted.
(label) To make (soil) cold and unproductive.
To macerate (lime) and render it fit for plaster or mortar.
Sour is a antonym of bitter.
Sour is a synonym of bitter.
As adjectives the difference between bitter and sour
is that bitter is having an acrid taste (usually from a basic substance) while sour is having an acidic, sharp or tangy taste.As nouns the difference between bitter and sour
is that bitter is a liquid or powder, made from bitter herbs, used in mixed drinks or as a tonic while sour is the sensation of a sour taste.As verbs the difference between bitter and sour
is that bitter is to make bitter while sour is to make sour.bitter
English
Adjective
(en-adj)Usage notes
* The one-word comparative form (bitterer) and superlative form (bitterest) exist, but are less common than their two-word counterparts (term) and (term).Derived terms
* bitter pill to swallowSee also
* bitter endAntonyms
* (cynical and resentful) optimisticSynonyms
* (cynical and resentful) jadedNoun
(en noun)- Thus I begin: "All is not gold that glitters,
- "Pleasure seems sweet, but proves a glass of bitters .
Derived terms
* brought up to a bittersour
English
Alternative forms
* (obsolete) sowrAdjective
(er)- All sour things, as vinegar, provoke appetite.
- (rfex)
- (rfex)
- He was a scholar / Lofty and sour to them that loved him not, / But to those men that sought him sweet as summer.
- (rfex)
- sour adversity
citation, page= , passage=The result may not quite give the Wearsiders a sweet ending to what has been a sour week, following allegations of sexual assault and drug possession against defender Titus Bramble, but it does at least demonstrate that their spirit remains strong in the face of adversity.}}
Noun
- (rfex)
- (rfex)
- (Edmund Spenser)
Derived terms
* laundry sourVerb
- So the sun's heat, with different powers, / Ripens the grape, the liquor sours .
- To sour your happiness I must report, / The queen is dead.
- (Mortimer)
