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Acrimonious vs Caustic - What's the difference?

acrimonious | caustic |

As adjectives the difference between acrimonious and caustic

is that acrimonious is angry, acid, and sharp in delivering argumentative replies: bitter; mean-spirited; sharp in language or tone while caustic is capable of burning, corroding or destroying organic tissue.

As a noun caustic is

any substance or means which, applied to animal or other organic tissue, burns, corrodes, or destroys it by chemical action; an escharotic.

acrimonious

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • angry, acid, and sharp in delivering argumentative replies: bitter; mean-spirited; sharp in language or tone.
  • * 2010 , , Questionable Content 1579: Visitation Rights
    • That would be a way more acrimonious custody battle than the one my parents had over me.

    Synonyms

    * rancorous

    Derived terms

    * acrimoniously * acrimoniousness

    Anagrams

    *

    caustic

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Capable of burning, corroding or destroying organic tissue.
  • Sharp, bitter, cutting, biting, and sarcastic in a scathing way.
  • *
    • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=8 , passage=The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again;

    Synonyms

    * (capable of destroying tissue ): acidic, biting, burning, corrosive, searing * (severe, sharp ): bitchy, biting, catty, mordacious, nasty, sarcastic, scathing, sharp, spiteful

    Quotations

    * 1843': "How now!" said Scrooge, '''caustic and cold as ever. — Charles Dickens, ''A Christmas Carol * 1843': The bargain was not concluded as easily as might have been expected though, for Scadder was '''caustic and ill-humoured, and cast much unnecessary opposition in the way — Charles Dickens, ''Martin Chuzzlewit * 1853': Madame Beck esteemed me learned and blue; Miss Fanshawe, '''caustic , ironic, and cynical — Charlotte Bronte, ''Villette * 1857':The Secretary and the Assistant-Secretaries would say little '''caustic things about him to the senior clerks, and seemed somewhat to begrudge him his new honours. — Anthony Trollope, ''The Three Clerks * 1886': this set of worthies, who were only too prone to shut up their emotions with '''caustic words. — Thomas Hardy, ''The Mayor of Casterbridge * 1930s???': though he came too late / To join the martyrs, there was still a place / Among the tempters for a ' caustic tongue / / To test the resolution of the young / With tales of the small failings of the great — W.H.Auden, 'The Quest'

    Derived terms

    * caustic curve * caustic potash * caustic soda * caustic surface

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Any substance or means which, applied to animal or other organic tissue, burns, corrodes, or destroys it by chemical action; an escharotic.
  • (optics, computer graphics) The envelope of reflected or refracted rays of light for a given surface or object.
  • (mathematics) The envelope of reflected or refracted rays for a given curve.
  • (informal, chemistry) caustic soda

    • Derived terms

    * lunar caustic