bitters

Pluralbitters (some meanings)

1. 1
   noununcountable

   A liquid flavored by steeping bitter herbs, used in small amounts in mixed drinks or as a tonic, and also available as a powder.

   Old recipes recommend a dash of bitters to settle the stomach after a heavy meal.

   She stirred bitters into the whiskey to round out its edge.

   Note

   The word is plural in form but names a single substance. You add a dash of bitters, not a bitters, and it is measured out in dashes and drops rather than counted. Two uses meet in this one word. Behind the bar it is a flavoring that rounds out a spirit. In an older habit it was a tonic taken to settle the stomach after a heavy meal.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of bitter.

   The bar lists three local bitters on its menu.

   He prefers traditional bitters to the lighter lagers.

   Note

   One plain plural serves several unrelated nouns at once. Over a bar it counts hop-heavy beers: three bitters on tap. On deck it counts turns of a cable about the bitts. In informal computing compounds it counts machines built around a given number of bits, such as eight-bitters. The herb-steeped flavoring behaves differently, and the cocktail ingredient covers it.

3. 3
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of bitter.

   Excess hop oil bitters the finished ale.

   Resentment slowly bitters his every word.

   Note

   This verb form is spelled exactly like the plural noun, and the sentence tells them apart. Here a singular subject comes first and an object follows. Because the verb means to make bitter, it is transitive, and it moves easily from taste to temper: a long grudge bitters a friendship just as hop oil bitters beer.

Showing meanings only. Show all 3