What's the difference between bittersweet and pleasure?

Bittersweet


Definition:

  • (a.) Sweet and then bitter or bitter and then sweet; esp. sweet with a bitter after taste; hence (Fig.), pleasant but painful.
  • (n.) Anything which is bittersweet.
  • (n.) A kind of apple so called.
  • (n.) A climbing shrub, with oval coral-red berries (Solanum dulcamara); woody nightshade. The whole plant is poisonous, and has a taste at first sweetish and then bitter. The branches are the officinal dulcamara.
  • (n.) An American woody climber (Celastrus scandens), whose yellow capsules open late in autumn, and disclose the red aril which covers the seeds; -- also called Roxbury waxwork.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) For the embattled people of Ali Akbar Dial, a collection of disappearing villages on the southern tip of the island in Bangladesh , the distant trees serve as a bittersweet reminder of what they have lost and a warning of what is come.
  • (2) The revolt represents a bittersweet victory for Tsipras, who now has to rely on “pro-European” opposition parties to push policies through parliament.
  • (3) The song is that musical embodiment of bittersweet chemical comedown when you still feel divine but your heart skips a beat and you don't always quite catch your breath."
  • (4) It’s been a bittersweet week for NHS providers – the hospital, mental health, ambulance and community NHS trusts and foundation trusts who treat a million patients every 36 hours and are the backbone of our national health service.
  • (5) Emma's work is also showcased in the shop until the end of May in Sad Stefano and Friends (pictured), an exhibition that promises to capture the bittersweet complexities and confusion of childhood.
  • (6) She said the prospect of stricter gun control laws was bittersweet.
  • (7) This time, they held out but there were some hairy moments after Wayne Rooney’s sending off and it was a bittersweet occasion for the man Louis van Gaal had entrusted to be his captain.
  • (8) Winter stem fluid from the bittersweet nightshade, Solanum dulcamara L., also showed the recrystallization inhibition activity characteristic of the animal thermal hysteresis proteins (THPs), suggesting a possible function for the THPs in this freeze tolerant species.
  • (9) "Unless we move to adopt a new economic model, the recovery will prove unsustainable and bittersweet for those who do not benefit from it before it is extinguished."
  • (10) After Liverpool announced the previous day that their captain would be leaving for MLS , Rodgers’ feelings about the source of the rescue act must have been bittersweet: could it not have been someone, anyone, else?
  • (11) And that could be crucial.” It seems that the particular bittersweet combination of nostalgic memory is vital to such effects.
  • (12) He drinks and dances and talks his way through a couple of days in the city, arriving at a moment of bittersweet joy as he watches his younger sister ride the carousel in Central Park.
  • (13) In a bittersweet farewell, Gabrielle Giffords , the US congresswoman recovering from a gunshot wound to the head, accepted chocolates and a big presidential hug as she claimed her seat one last time in the House of Representatives during Barack Obama's state of the union address.
  • (14) There is another a bittersweet angle to the story: the relationship between Ramphele and the DA's current leader, Helen Zille, who is giving up the presidential candidacy, dates back to the death of Ramphele's former partner, the Black Consciousness activist Steve Biko.
  • (15) These memories are associated with a characteristic affective coloration described as "bittersweet".
  • (16) Two months later, many of the students who pushed for the change say the decision is bittersweet.
  • (17) It's pretty much perfect: the story of a love that can never happen, between a failing Dublin songwriter and a Czech immigrant, it has that Brief Encounter bittersweet ache to it.
  • (18) Everyone else has written about her, so it’s a chance to give her version.” Obama’s favourite word in recent months has been “bittersweet” as she cycles through the calendar of events for the last time.
  • (19) She added: "I can only imagine how bittersweet her freedom must be for her, leaving Shane and Josh behind."
  • (20) And in a bittersweet twist of political fate this quiet revolt by the people of the East End may yet lock Ed Miliband out of 10 Downing Street.

Pleasure


Definition:

  • (n.) The gratification of the senses or of the mind; agreeable sensations or emotions; the excitement, relish, or happiness produced by the expectation or the enjoyment of something good, delightful, or satisfying; -- opposed to pain, sorrow, etc.
  • (n.) Amusement; sport; diversion; self-indulgence; frivolous or dissipating enjoyment; hence, sensual gratification; -- opposed to labor, service, duty, self-denial, etc.
  • (n.) What the will dictates or prefers as gratifying or satisfying; hence, will; choice; wish; purpose.
  • (n.) That which pleases; a favor; a gratification.
  • (v. t.) To give or afford pleasure to; to please; to gratify.
  • (v. i.) To take pleasure; to seek pursue pleasure; as, to go pleasuring.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The bank tellers who saw their positions filled by male superiors took special pleasure in going to the bank and keeping them busy.
  • (2) Black males with low intentions to use condoms reported significantly more negative attitudes about the use of condoms (eg, using condoms is disgusting) and reacted with more intense anger when their partners asked about previous sexual contacts, when a partner refused sex without a condom, or when they perceived condoms as interfering with foreplay and sexual pleasure.
  • (3) Walking for pleasure was generally the most common physical activity for both sexes throughout the year.
  • (4) I like to think of Shakespeare as one delicious smorgasbord that I have a lifelong pleasure in eating.
  • (5) Saudi Arabia As one might imagine, Saudi television rather wants for the bounty we enjoy here - reality shows in which footballers' mistresses administer handjobs to barnyard animals, and all those other things which make living in the godless west such a pleasure.
  • (6) The clashes between the moralistic Levin and his friend Oblonsky, sometimes affectionate, sometimes angry, and Levin's linkage of modernity to Oblonsky's attitudes – that social mores are to be worked around and subordinated to pleasure, that families are base camps for off-base nooky – undermine one possible reading of Anna Karenina , in which Anna is a martyr in the struggle for the modern sexual freedoms that we take for granted, taken down by the hypocritical conservative elite to which she, her lover and her husband belong.
  • (7) Data from human and animal studies indicate a correlation between ictal pleasure or reinforcement and the subject's ability to induce seizures.
  • (8) I have had the awe-inducing pleasure of standing alone among the giant trees, both sequoias and redwoods, and hearing nothing but the chatter of the squirrels and the high wind in the tallest branches.
  • (9) Nondrinkers reported a greater likelihood of both positive and negative effects; heavier drinkers reported more pleasurable effects.
  • (10) A survey last year found that almost 4 million British adults never read books for pleasure , and as in Pellerin’s case, a lack of time was the dominant factor.
  • (11) We like to enjoy ourselves, if you enjoy the way you play you’ll win a lot of games.” It is a long time, and several managers, since Sunderland fans have derived any sustained pleasure from observing their team in action and sure enough, watching Allardyce’s charges was once again, a somewhat gruelling experience.
  • (12) (Like humans, they have sex for pleasure as well as for procreation.)
  • (13) But a big part of the High Line's success is its planting and landscaping, which is intelligent, imaginative and well considered, in the way it converts industrial relics into a place of urban pleasure.
  • (14) There is an enjoyment that comes with owning it, a pleasure, but also he is an astute businessman.
  • (15) He confessed to over-indulgence in this pleasure at some stages of his life, and to the recreational use of drugs.
  • (16) The opposite of a guilty pleasure: a guilty torture.
  • (17) We would have been denied the pleasure of seeing the official Tongan team anorak, for a start, and it was a bit special, wasn’t it?
  • (18) "It gives them a sense of pleasure when they believe that they've destroyed me or taken me down.
  • (19) No changes in plasma beta-endorphin or ACTH concentrations were observed with pentagastrin nor after the meal, despite the combination of very high sensory pleasure with intake of a very large amount of food.
  • (20) It was the book that turned me on to the intoxicating pleasure of theatre criticism and – well-thumbed and much borrowed from – it has stayed with me ever since.