verb
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to make (a person) resentful or bitter
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to aggravate (an already hostile feeling, difficult situation, etc)
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of embitter
Explanation
To embitter to make someone bitter, resentful, or angry. People are embittered by disappointing and unfair experiences. Life is often difficult, painful, and unfair. When bad things happen, they can embitter people. When you're embittered, your mood and attitude have soured. Losing your job unfairly will embitter you. Getting insulted will embitter you. Facing discrimination will embitter you. Some people are more prone to being embittered than others, but everyone gets embittered sometimes. When something or someone embitters you, you feel resentful and long for revenge.
Vocabulary lists containing embitter
Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Prefixes: en-, em-
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Novel Study: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, Chapters 1–6
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The Devil in the White City
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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.
The plan, if it passes in its original form, could lead to legal measures that would embitter the everyday lives of the migrants and, critics say, make their stay in Israel intolerable.
From Seattle Times • May 4, 2023
Mr. Cross “never condoned the kidnappers,” his son-in-law said, but neither did he allow “what they did to embitter him or eat into his enjoyment of life thereafter.”
From Washington Post • Jan. 21, 2021
Hardship did not embitter Lucy Larcom, and she never lost her love of books and gift for poetry.
From Textbooks • Jan. 18, 2018
Or will the attack embitter powerful factions in the government and alienate them further from the notion of an alliance with the United States?
From Slate • May 2, 2011
Sarcastic words, warrant for the facile retort that followed, curt judgments and ill-timed reproofs; and always the sense of outraged dignity to freeze the manner and embitter the tone.
From Chippinge Borough by Weyman, Stanley J.
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.
