acerb
Americanadjective
Etymology
Origin of acerb
1650–60; < Latin acerbus; see acerbic
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Groucho's ambition is to keep You Bet Your Life neatly balanced between human interest and acerb comment.
From Time Magazine Archive
Washington's famed, acerb hostess, "Princess Alice" Roosevelt Longworth, 63, lost her footing in a butcher shop, landed hard, broke her left arm in two places and sprained her ankle.
From Time Magazine Archive
Lawrence has Pryor's bantam pugnacity, but he lacks the underdog charm, the skewed genius for mimicry and acerb social humor.
From Time Magazine Archive
Put together Donaldson's blunt demeanor and Will's ideological questions on This Week with David Brinkley, and Brinkley, who once seemed acerb, comes out courtly by contrast.
From Time Magazine Archive
She denied that stenographers could ever form a union, but she could not answer his acerb, “Why not?”
From The Job An American Novel by Sinclair Lewis
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
