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Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Roughness or harshness, as of surface, sound, or climate.
- noun Severity; rigor.
- noun A slight projection from a surface; a point or bump.
- noun Harshness of manner; ill temper or irritability.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Roughness of surface; unevenness: opposed to smoothness.
- noun Roughness of sound; harshness of pronunciation.
- noun Harshness of taste; sourness.
- noun Roughness or ruggedness of temper; crabbedness; bitterness; severity: as, to chide one with asperity; “asperity of character,” Landor.
- noun Disagreeableness; unpleasantness; difficulty: as, “the acclivities and asperities of duty,” Barrow, Sermons, III. xlii.
- noun Synonyms Acrimony, Harshness, etc. See
acrimony .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Roughness of surface; unevenness; -- opposed to
smoothness . - noun Roughness or harshness of sound; that quality which grates upon the ear; raucity.
- noun Roughness to the taste; sourness; tartness.
- noun Moral roughness; roughness of manner; severity; crabbedness; harshness; -- opposed to
mildness . - noun Sharpness; disagreeableness; difficulty.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun
Roughness as of stone or weather. - noun
Harshness , as of temper. - noun Something that is
harsh and difficult toendure . - noun geology A part of a geological
fault line that does not move.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun harshness of manner
- noun something hard to endure
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
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Examples
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I recall the asperity with which this easy out (Kushner's "God is not all-powerful") was dismissed by Yehuda Bauer, the former head of the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum, when I asked him about it in Jerusalem.
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With all its merits, there are those who have thought that there was one thing in the declaration to be regretted; and that is, the asperity and anger with which it speaks of the person of the king; the industrious ability with which it accumulates and charges upon him all the injuries which the colonies had suffered from the mother country.
Thomas Jefferson, a Character Sketch Edward Sylvester Ellis 1878
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Professor Brack deals with the question of Hawkins's "asperity" toward Johnson in his introduction.
The Powers of Dr. Johnson O'Hagan, Andrew 2009
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She'd been through the spellin'-book wunst, and had got as fur as 'asperity' on it a second time.
The Wit and Humor of America, Volume I. (of X.) Various 1887
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She'd been through the spellin'-book wunst, and had got as fur as 'asperity' on it a second time.
The Hoosier Schoolmaster Eggleston, Edward, 1837-1902 1871
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She'd been through the spellin'-book wunst, and had got as fur as 'asperity' on it a second time.
The Hoosier Schoolmaster A Story of Backwoods Life in Indiana Edward Eggleston 1869
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I was mulling this when God spoke to me again, this time in a voice every bit as clear but now tinged with a hint of asperity: "Just go do what I'm sending you to do."
Eliot Daley: My Memo To Atheists: Why I Choose God Eliot Daley 2012
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That's nice -- as one of my Catholic friends put it with some asperity, she was glad Catholicism "was working out for him."
Doug Bandow: Should Christians Ask: Who Would Jesus Vote For? Doug Bandow 2012
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Its interest, when changes in the world are inevitable and necessary, is to assist so that the changes "if possible, may be accomplished without war; or, if war occurs, that its duration and asperity be lessened."
From Disraeli to 'the Bang-Bang' Peggy Noonan 2011
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The New York Times noted his asperity when dealing with Apple's competitor, Microsoft, "The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste," he said.
Rev. James Martin, S.J.: St. Steve Jobs? Probably Not, But…. S.J. Rev. James Martin 2011
Related Words
synonyms (90)
Words with the same meaning
- acerbity
- acid
- acidity
- acidness
- acidulousness
- acridity
- acrimony
- anger
- animosity
- astringency
- austerity
- bad humor
- bad temper
- bile
- biliousness
- bitingness
- bitter resentment
- bitterness
- bitterness of spirit
- bumpiness
- causticity
- causticness
- choler
- choppiness
- corrosiveness
- crabbedness
- cragginess
- cuttingness
- difficulty
- disagreeableness
- discontent
- edge
- gall
- gnashing of teeth
- granulation
- grimness
- hard feelings
- hardness
- hardship
- harshness
- heartburning
- hispidity
- ill humor
- ill nature
- ill temper
- incisiveness
- inclemency
- inequality
- irregularity
- irritability
- jaggedness
- joltiness
- keenness
- mordacity
- mordancy
- moroseness
- nonuniformity
- piercingness
- piquancy
- poignancy
- pungency
- raggedness
- rancor
- rankling
- raucity
- rigor
- rough air
- roughness
- ruggedness
- rugosity
- scraggliness
- severity
- sharpness
- slow burn
- snappishness
- soreness
- sourness
- spleen
- stabbingness
- stringency
- tartness
- tooth
- trenchancy
- turbulence
- unevenness
- unsmoothness
- ununiformity
- vicissitude
- virulence
- waspishness
yarb commented on the word asperity
"Is it so important that you should be sure?" she finally questioned.
"Not to you, naturally," he returned with involuntary asperity.
- Edith Wharton, The Reef
June 20, 2008