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Synonyms

embitter

American  
[em-bit-er] / ɛmˈbɪt ər /

verb (used with object)

  1. to make bitter; cause to feel bitterness.

    Failure has embittered him.

    Synonyms:
    envenom, rankle, sour
  2. to make bitter or more bitter in taste.


embitter British  
/ ɪmˈbɪtə /

verb

  1. to make (a person) resentful or bitter

  2. to aggravate (an already hostile feeling, difficult situation, etc)

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

  • embittered adjective
  • embitterer noun
  • embitterment noun
  • unembittered adjective

Etymology

Origin of embitter

First recorded in 1595–1605; em- 1 + bitter

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.

As a narrator, Won maintains a weary earnestness, acknowledging the bitterness of his situation without allowing it to embitter him.

From Washington Post • Jan. 11, 2023

AP: What struck me most watching the film is that despite going through what would defeat or embitter most, you seem to have emerged with such joy and appreciation for life.

From Seattle Times • Jun. 15, 2021

The unhappy decline that constituted the second act was, in Pastor’s view, an uncannily precise preview of the economic, social and political discontents that now embitter our national politics.

From New York Times • Apr. 23, 2018

Hardship did not embitter Lucy Larcom, and she never lost her love of books and gift for poetry.

From Textbooks • Jan. 18, 2018

The happiness of this world is fragile and unstable--one must try to make life sweet and not embitter it.

From Count Br?hl by Kraszewski, Jo?zef Ignacy