What's the difference between bitter and bittern?

Bitter


Definition:

  • (n.) AA turn of the cable which is round the bitts.
  • (v. t.) Having a peculiar, acrid, biting taste, like that of wormwood or an infusion of hops; as, a bitter medicine; bitter as aloes.
  • (v. t.) Causing pain or smart; piercing; painful; sharp; severe; as, a bitter cold day.
  • (v. t.) Causing, or fitted to cause, pain or distress to the mind; calamitous; poignant.
  • (v. t.) Characterized by sharpness, severity, or cruelty; harsh; stern; virulent; as, bitter reproach.
  • (v. t.) Mournful; sad; distressing; painful; pitiable.
  • (n.) Any substance that is bitter. See Bitters.
  • (v. t.) To make bitter.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Since the election on 7 March there has been a bitter contest for power in Iraq led by Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
  • (2) If bitter, pour it out and measure 1.4 litres of water.
  • (3) The dumplings could also be served pan-fried in browned butter and tossed with a bitter leaf salad and fresh sheep's cheese for a lighter, but equally delicious option.
  • (4) The first was a passive avoidance task in which the chicks were allowed to peck at a green training stimulus (a small light-emitting diode, LED) coated in the bitter liquid, methylanthranilate, giving rise to a strong disgust response and consequent avoidance of the green stimulus.
  • (5) In the QHCl-sucrose condition components separated by the tongue's midline and those spatially mixed produced equal amounts of bitterness suppression.
  • (6) At the interview those with conventional ileostomies expressed better preoperative comprehension of the procedure and more satisfaction about its life-saving nature; nevertheless, they experienced more negative emotional reactions, such as bitterness, after the operation.
  • (7) The higher analogues of the cycloalkane series containing alpha-aminocycloheptanecarboxylic acid methyl ester and alpha-aminocyclooctanecarboxylic acid methyl ester are bitter.
  • (8) It's almost starting to feel like we're back in the good old days of July 2005, when Paris lost out to London in the battle to stage the 2012 Olympic Games, a defeat immediately interpreted by France as a bitter blow to Gallic ideals of fair play and non-commercialism and yet another undeserved triumph for the underhand, free-market manoeuvrings of perfidious Albion.
  • (9) Hollande ended up defending until to the bitter end Jérôme Cahuzac , a finance minister responsible for fighting tax evasion who turned out to have used a secret Swiss bank account to avoid paying taxes in France.
  • (10) The sensitivity of the taste system to the various qualities was, in decreasing order, salty, sweet, sour, and bitter.
  • (11) Grace's ascent has also thrown a grenade into the bitter succession battle within Zanu-PF, which Mugabe has divided and ruled for decades.
  • (12) Denatonium, a very bitter substance, caused a rise in the intracellular calcium concentration due to release from internal stores in a small subpopulation of taste cells.
  • (13) I see myself in exactly the same situation as I saw myself yesterday, though obviously with the bitter disappointment of the failure of being knocked out.
  • (14) Stephen Joseph, its chief executive said: "This is bitter news for everyone who relies on the train to get to work, not least the large number of commuters in marginal constituencies who will be a key group at the next election."
  • (15) Lewis Wind Power, the joint venture company set up by Amec and British Energy, said it was "bitterly disappointed" by the decision.
  • (16) As night fell in Paris, despite the bitter cold, more than 5,000 people gathered under the imposing statue of Marianne, the symbol of the republic, to show their anger, grief and solidarity.
  • (17) The present alternative model of health care in China has evolved after prolonged and often bitter debate extending over twenty years.
  • (18) It is much less soluble and bitter and poses few stability problems when capsulated or tableted with aspirin.
  • (19) "They have given Mexicans the most bitter Christmas," Armando Martínez, the president of the College of Catholic Attorneys, told reporters.
  • (20) He says he is not bitter but his words are laced with hostility.

Bittern


Definition:

  • (n.) A wading bird of the genus Botaurus, allied to the herons, of various species.
  • (a.) The brine which remains in salt works after the salt is concreted, having a bitter taste from the chloride of magnesium which it contains.
  • (a.) A very bitter compound of quassia, cocculus Indicus, etc., used by fraudulent brewers in adulterating beer.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) For the first time in 30 years, and possibly longer, fresh water from deep underground is not filling the ditches and reedbeds of the 40-hectare reserve known for its bitterns, water voles and marsh harriers.
  • (2) In many herons and bitterns, only one cecum is present, and in the secretary bird there are two pairs of ceca.
  • (3) Winners and losers Going: Species facing "severe" threats in England Red squirrel Northern bluefin tuna Natterjack toad Common skate Alpine foxtail Kittiwake Grey plover Shrill carder bumblebee Recovering: Recent conservation success stories Pole cat Large blue butterfly Red kite Ladybird spider Pink meadowcap Sand lizard Pool frog Bittern
  • (4) Visitors understandably make a beeline for the big-name big game parks like Yala, but sharing sunrise over the lagoon with Indian pond herons, black and yellow bitterns, a dazzling purple swamp hen, black cormorants, a peacock surveying the scene from a rocky perch and even a small crocodile, had its own magic.
  • (5) You may find bitterns making their basso profundo hoot, or you could see otters, dragonflies and adders.
  • (6) All is limpid observation, gliding from one bittern to another, until the startling remark that fading colour enhanced the flowers' "sincerity", as if they have been pressing a case.
  • (7) Bitterns had almost gone extinct in this country, and they’re now breeding out there.” One of Trevelyan’s students from Ghana will talk about how he and his colleagues managed to save the Togo slippery frog from extinction .
  • (8) There were just 11 male bitterns in Britain in 1997, but this summer 47 males made their booming call in Somerset alone .
  • (9) Higher water levels at the Otmoor reserve in Oxfordshire have made reed beds wetter, giving birds such as bitterns a better chance of nesting.
  • (10) Facebook Twitter Pinterest Malta allows 9,798 hunters to shoot up to 16,000 turtle dove and quail each spring but Packham found injured and dead birds illegally shot last week included swifts, yellow-legged gulls, kestrels and a little bittern.
  • (11) That will impact on the fish that feed on them and the birds, like the bitterns, which eat the fish."
  • (12) Bittern single-copy DNA has evolved at a rate approximately 25% faster, and boat-billed heron (Cochearius) and rufescent tiger heron (Tigrisoma lineatum) DNA has evolved approximately 19% slower, than that of day and night herons.
  • (13) The river is at first open and sunny, but becomes wooded and secretive after two miles, before winding through the reedy lowlands of the Stodmarsh nature reserve , good for spotting bittern, marsh harriers and water vole.
  • (14) Consider these sentences from near the beginning of A Week: We glided noiselessly down the stream, occasionally driving a pickerel from the covert of the pads, or a bream from her nest, and the smaller bittern now and then sailed away on sluggish wings from some recess in the shore, or the larger lifted itself out of the long grass at our approach, and carried its precious legs away to deposit them in a place of safety.
  • (15) Nycticorax nycticorax, Ardea cinerea, Egretta garzetta, and Egretta intermedia were naturally infected with Clinostomum complanatum (Trematoda: Clinostomatidae) among fourteen wild herons, seven wild egrets and one wild bittern evaluated at the Veterinary Hospital of Tottori University, Tottori, Japan.