adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a bitter argument
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There are bitter arguments about whether he was a hero or a war criminal.
a bitter blow (= extremely disappointing )
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Their defeat was a bitter blow.
a bitter comment (= an angry one )
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Several pensioners passed some bitter comments.
a bitter complaint (= a very angry one )
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The people are full of bitter complaints about their government.
a bitter disagreement
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There are reports of bitter disagreement between the EU and the US over this issue.
a bitter divorce (= involving very angry feelings )
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After a long and bitter divorce, Wendy was looking forward to starting a new life.
a bitter exchange (= one in which people criticize each other with strong feelings of hate and anger )
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There were bitter exchanges between them outside the court room.
a bitter rival (= one that hates you )
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They have long been bitter rivals.
a bitter strike (= with angry feelings between workers and managers )
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The miners finally returned to work at the end of a long, bitter strike.
a bitter/fierce dispute (= very angry )
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It caused a bitter dispute between the neighbouring republics.
a fierce/bitter clash (= involving violence and strong feelings )
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Fierce clashes swept across Bosnia and Croatia.
a fierce/bitter opponent (= a very strong opponent, who often expresses their opinions angrily )
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She became well-known as a bitter opponent of slavery.
an icy/biting/bitter wind (= very cold )
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She shivered in the icy wind.
bitter accusations (= angry )
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The dispute was marked by bitter accusations from both sides.
bitter chocolate (= dark chocolate with a strong sharp taste )
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Bitter chocolate may be added to meat sauces for extra flavour.
bitter conflict (= very angry )
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The new law provoked bitter conflict.
bitter controversy (= involving very angry feelings )
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The strike was called off, amid bitter controversy.
bitter disappointment (= feeling disappointed in a very unhappy and upset way )
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The fans felt bitter disappointment at England's failure to qualify for the finals.
bitter enemies (= enemies who hate each other very much )
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When these former friends quarrelled over money, they became bitter enemies.
bitter experience (= experience that makes you feel disappointed or upset )
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I knew from bitter experience how unreliable she could be.
bitter regret (= when you feel sad and angry )
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To the bitter regret of his party, he refused to call an election.
bitter resentment (= very strong )
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Heavy-handed policing caused bitter resentment.
bitter tears
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She wept bitter tears of remorse for leaving her children behind.
bitter wrangle
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a bitter wrangle over copyright
bitter (= involving strong feelings of anger or hatred )
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They are locked in a bitter quarrel over ownership of the land.
bitter
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The brandy would not have masked the bitter taste of the poison.
fierce/bitter/harsh/sharp criticism (= involving angry feelings )
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The prison system has been the object of fierce criticism.
keg beer/bitter British English (= beer served from a keg )
passionate/intense/deep/bitter hatred (= hatred that is felt very strongly )
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What, I wondered, had I done to provoke such deep hatred?
sweet/spicy/bitter/salty etc
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The flavor was like peaches, but not as sweet.
taste sweet/bitter/sour/salty
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He handed me some black stuff which tasted bitter.
tragic/cruel/bitter etc irony
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The tragic irony is that the drug was supposed to save lives.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
argument
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The issue of potency level has been a source of the bitterest argument between practitioners since Hom£opathy began.
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After a bitter argument when Albee was a teen-ager, she threw him out of the house.
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But defining and ranking these concepts produced some of the drafters' bitterest arguments .
attack
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He also launched a bitter attack on the judiciary, accusing it of corruption.
battle
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It would also help if he had been engaged in a much publicised and bitter battle with the Prime Minister.
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In the United States, an ever-more bitter battle had been fought around this issue since abortion was legalized in 1972.
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But a press backlash did get into gear, leaving a handful of diehard music writers to fight a bitter battle .
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A bitter battle is fought as to whether it should be six or five or four.
blow
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It was a bitter blow when the trustees preferred the reprint.
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The loss of that partner through death, either shortly before retirement or afterwards, comes as a bitter blow .
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It was a particularly bitter blow for Leeds, because in the very first minute they should have levelled the tie.
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So defeat was a bitter blow to Dowding.
cold
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Nothing for certain but the dark weather and the bitter cold .
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Mormons sang and danced to fight off the bitter cold of Iowa in winter.
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I got dressed quickly in the bitter cold of the room, and washed when I could.
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Hunger and the bitter cold would have reduced bird numbers and driven species to flock in the open fields.
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When she emerged into the car park the bitter cold enveloped her insidiously; it had been so much milder in Keyhole.
conflict
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During the tumultuous years that followed, Nottinghamshire was to play a major role in the bitter conflict .
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Today, the Mirror looks back to the first tragic deaths in one of the world's longest and more bitter conflicts .
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The 1890s and early 1900s saw a series of bitter conflicts associated with drives for union recognition.
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No one can deny that many of the most bitter conflicts in the world today have religious components to them.
debate
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A bitter debate over cuts opened with Labour's proposal to cut about £700,000 from pre-five education.
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Both demolition projects set off bitter debates .
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The idea of rewarding groups is also gaining steam in the bitter debate over merit pay for teachers.
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The number of permissible House terms has been a subject of bitter debate .
disappointment
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There is no doubt that the outcome of that long campaign, the Act itself, was a bitter disappointment to working-class radicals.
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Except, of course, for the bitter disappointment of his day lilies.
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Even in pure mathematics, he met with one bitter disappointment .
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To your bitter disappointment your request to go to a meeting in another town is turned down. 7.
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At this point he was overcome with bitter disappointment .
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Their bitter disappointment with Netanyahu and his government was not primarily political.
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This was a bitter disappointment to Oliver, but his new friends were still as kind to him as ever.
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Bishop carefully watched as first bitter disappointment and then professional concern chased startled horror from the woman's face.
dispute
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It is now the subject of a bitter dispute between the neighbouring republics.
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Exactly when the Gingrich case will come to a close has become a matter of bitter dispute .
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The parts makers must therefore take some pleasure in Mr Lopez's increasingly bitter dispute with his former employer.
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The biggest gains and the most bitter disputes arise over trades between north and south.
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The bill has bogged down in bitter disputes over the balance between law enforcement and civil liberties.
end
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He would fight my case to the bitter end , he vowed.
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I stayed to the bitter end .
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And there, some plunging sense of his own inadequacy assured him, he would find the bitter end of his search.
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Master Yehudi always won, and he went on winning to the bitter end .
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He at least was ready to slug it out to the bitter end .
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Do I intend to campaign to the bitter end ?
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But a promise is a promise and we have to pursue this thing to the bitter end .
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He must be seen to be productive until the bitter end .
enemy
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Both Rennenkampf and Samsonov had distinguished military records as cavalry commanders in Manchuria, but they had quarrelled and become bitter enemies .
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The southern conviction that the Republicans were bitter enemies of slavery precipitated this decision.
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In the course of time he and Richard were to become fellow-crusaders and bitter enemies .
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The two neighbors fought a war from 1980 to 1988 and still are bitter enemies .
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He felt humiliated and helpless; his bitter enemy and master, Hassanali Fakhru, stood in the doorway and spoke.
experience
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Union attitudes have been powerfully conditioned by long and bitter experience .
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Yet he knew from bitter experience that forging such a bond in the late twentieth century entailed experimentation and error.
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I've learnt that from bitter experience !
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Had she forgotten the bitter experience of her own childhood?
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All three, from their different perspectives, and each with bitter experience , saw the dangers of noble egoism.
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She knew from bitter experience how treacherous such feelings could be, and the blind alleyways down which they led.
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Some of these fears have been forged out of bitter experience .
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Many had also learnt from bitter experience that a good education was needed in the continuing battle against colour prejudice.
fight
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Passage of the 1994 law came after a bitter fight that lasted nearly a decade.
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The United States will continue to furnish you and your people with the fullest measure of support in this bitter fight .
flavour
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Raw berries should be cooked and sweetened before being eaten because they have an intensely bitter flavour .
irony
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The bitter irony was that the whole plan had been her idea right from the start.
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His work is thus marked with a bitter irony which permeated not only the substance of his theory but also its method.
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And the bitterest irony of all was that he himself was a victim.
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It was a bitter irony that he condemned her for loving a man who was out of reach.
laugh
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She shook her head as a short, unexpectedly bitter laugh bubbled up from her chest.
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A bitter laugh rose up like bile in her throat.
memory
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Now she didn't even have that - just a few bitter memories .
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To those present dangers are added bitter memories .
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Isabel moved restlessly as bitter memories engulfed her.
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Old and bitter memories welled up inside her once more.
opponent
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Even his most bitter opponents are keeping their heads down.
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Ironically, the firm which achieved success in this area - CIT-Alcatel - was the most bitter opponent of Giscard d'Estaing.
pill
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The traditionalist camp has had to swallow some bitter pills .
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Its failure to comfort is just another bitter pill .
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Lamb and Botham had to swallow the very bitter pill of being dropped.
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We were in such a state we decided to swallow what seemed the bitter pill of Thatcherism.
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And we can speak up to tell them that bitter pills are indigestible.
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It was a bitter pill for the 117 men listed to swallow with their Thanksgiving turkey yesterday.
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It was a bit of a blow, a bitter pill to swallow.
rival
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Early returns show bitter rival and outgoing President Slobodan Milosevic well ahead in the race.
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Six teams are bitter rivals in what will be a fight to the finish.
smile
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A bitter smile crossed his face as his eyes ranged over the top men in the giant corporation.
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A bitter smile touched his lips at that, for hadn't Grainne long since been lost?
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He smiled a small bitter smile, and pushed the white folder aside.
struggle
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It will be a bitter struggle against myself but I know I can do it.
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The Buccaneers, locked in a bitter struggle for a new stadium, could attempt to leave Tampa Bay after next season.
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But the Bolsheviks were determined to frustrate them and immediately after October a bitter struggle ensued between the workers and the party.
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They would not understand what a bitter struggle my whole life has been.
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He contrasts the love themes of Romeo and Juliet with those which accompany the bitter struggles and fights between Montague and Capulet.
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This bitter struggle was personified by the Soong family, for years rent by political differences and petty jealousies.
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It was a long and bitter struggle with great losses on both sides, causing a serious weakening of the imperial army.
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Today's move is expected to be the conclusion of a bitter struggle for control of the group.
taste
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The pills left a bitter taste , a raging thirst and pent-up energy for which there was no outlet.
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Right now the bitter taste matched her mood.
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Sweet as the victory over polio was, one medical historian wrote: It left a slightly bitter taste in many mouths.
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Then look at each one very carefully, removing any yellowish pieces, which may give the finished dish a bitter taste .
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Even after swallowing it, its bitter taste lingered long in my mouth.
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But Kenny Brown's reply left a bitter taste in their mouths.
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She had tasted the fear of being cast out, and it left a bitter taste in her mouth.
tear
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The bright images of individual stars elongated and blurred into melting crystalline shapes as bitter tears pricked in Vologsky's eyes.
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Hot, bitter tears rolled down her cheeks, and with them came back the noise of the street.
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Just that one brief moment of madness ... Then the bitter tears of self-reproach.
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Finally he lay prone, still, exhausted; and bitter tears oozed out between his eyelids.
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Fighting back the sting of bitter tears , Lissa straightened her clothes, and left the office by a back door.
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She buried her face in her hands and burst into bitter tears .
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Inside the coach I cried the bitterest tears of my life.
wind
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He came out of the station restaurant into the bitter wind and strode across the car park.
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A bitter wind whips across the seared fields and bristly pastures behind the produce stand.
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Early that January a bitter wind blowing off the far Urals seized East Anglia in a grip of ice.
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Holly stepped out into the bitter wind .
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A cold, bitter wind blows through the branches, its whistling filled with the cries of tormented souls.
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A bitter wind scurried among the branches of the trees that rose above and behind the stark line of old-fashioned eagle cages.
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Her eyes were half-closed and her cheeks were stiff with the numbing cold of the bitter wind .
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The farm was beside Lake Eyrie and rain, along with bitter winds , would sweep over the vineyard.
winter
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Oxfam say woman and children are particularly at risk from the bitter winter weather.
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The bitter winter had all the country in its grip.
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That was a bitter winter in all ways.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
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a bitter east wind
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a bitter legal battle over custody of the children
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I used to be very bitter and angry, but I've gotten over it.
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She shot a bitter glance in his direction and left.
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strong, bitter coffee
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The herb rue has a bitter taste, which makes it unpopular for cooking.
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The medicine tasted bitter .
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The party suffered a bitter defeat in 1964.
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There has been bitter fighting in the hills to the north of the capital.
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Try not to burn the oil, it will make the sauce taste bitter .
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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Because he was literate and articulate, he showed a bitter contempt for the self-appointed intellectuals of the inter-war years.
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I ask if I might have some green tea and feel even better as I sip the bitter , warm liquid.
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She loved him so much, and to realise that she was only an episode in his busy life was bitter indeed.
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The citron has the most beautiful fragrance of all the citrus fruits and its pith is not bitter .
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The extract is bitter but tolerable, and the root has the taste of a radish past its prime.
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The wind was bitter , but when they lay down Glover felt the warmth of the sun.
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There is no doubt that the outcome of that long campaign, the Act itself, was a bitter disappointment to working-class radicals.
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What had he done to make Juliet so vengeful and bitter ?