adj, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb

1. 1
   To exasperate; to irritate. transitive

   "Lady Laura had triumphed; but she had no desire to acerbate her husband by any unpalatable allusion to her victory."

2. 2
   make sour or bitter wordnet
3. 3
   To make bitter or sour. transitive
4. 4
   cause to be bitter or resentful wordnet

Adjective

1. 1
   Embittered; having a sour disposition or nature. rare

Synonyms

All synonyms

embitteracerbicacidacidulousacridacrimonious

Example

More examples

"Lady Laura had triumphed; but she had no desire to acerbate her husband by any unpalatable allusion to her victory."

Etymology

From Latin acerbātus, perfect passive participle of acerbō (“make bitter”), from acerbus (“bitter”).

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.