bitterly

English

Etymology

From Middle English bitterli, biterli, biterliche, from Old English biterlīċe, bitterlīċe (“bitterly”), equivalent to bitter +‎ -ly. Cognate with German Low German bitterlik (“bitterly”), German bitterlich (“bitterly”), Swedish bitterligen (“bitterly”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈbɪtəɹli/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈbɪtəli/
• Hyphenation: bit‧ter‧ly

• Audio (US)

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Adverb

bitterly (comparative more bitterly, superlative most bitterly)

1. In a bitter manner.
   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

     Judge Short had gone to town, and Farrar was off for a three days' cruise up the lake. I was bitterly regretting I had not gone with him when the distant notes of a coach horn reached my ear, and I descried a four-in-hand winding its way up the inn road from the direction of Mohair.

   • 1956 [1880], Johanna Spyri, Heidi, translation of original by Eileen Hall, page 91:

     Heidi threw herself down beside Clara's chair and began to cry bitterly.

   • 2011 October 1, Phil McNulty, “Everton 0-2 Liverpool”, in BBC Sport:

     Liverpool's £58m strikeforce of Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez scored the goals that settled the Merseyside derby at Goodison Park - but Everton were left complaining bitterly about Jack Rodwell's controversial early red card.

2. Extremely
   • 2023 December 1, Emma Sanders, “England 3-2 Netherlands”, in BBC Sport‎^[1]:

     On a bitterly cold evening at Wembley, the Lionesses knew only victory would be enough to keep alive Team GB's hopes of competing in Paris.

Collocations

Some adjectives commonly collocating with bitterly:

• bitterly cold
• bitterly disappointed
• bitterly dividing
• bitterly frustrated

Translations

in a bitter manner

• Catalan: amargament (ca)
• Czech: hořce (cs)
• Esperanto: amare (eo)
• Finnish: katkerasti (fi)
• French: amèrement (fr)
• Galician: amargamente
• German: bitterlich (de)
• Gothic: 𐌱𐌰𐌹𐍄𐍂𐌰𐌱𐌰 (baitraba)
• Norman: améthement
• Plautdietsch: bettalich
• Portuguese: amargamente
• Russian: го́рько (ru) (górʹko)
• Spanish: amargamente (es)