bitter end

bitter end noun: that part of an anchor cable which is abaft the bitts and thus remains inboard when a ship is riding at anchor.

Noun

bitter end (plural bitter ends)

That part of an anchor cable which is abaft the bitts and thus remains inboard when a ship is riding at anchor.
- pay out a rope to the bitter end (pay out all of the rope)
The final six fathoms (11 m) of anchor chain before the point of attachment in the chain locker of modern US naval vessels.
(idiomatic) The end of a long and difficult process.

bitter end meaning in Tamil

bitter end in Tamil

நுனிவடம்

Forms of bitter end

plural	bitter ends

Origin of bitter end

The figurative usage is influenced by bitter (“unpleasant, arduous”). Indeed, the phrase has been reinterpreted by most today as bitter + end—compare bitter cold.

Words formed from bitter end

bitter-ender

Questions about bitter end

What does bitter end mean?: Bitter end means that part of an anchor cable which is abaft the bitts and thus remains inboard when a ship is riding at anchor.
What is bitter end in Tamil?: Bitter end in Tamil is நுனிவடம். See Bitter end meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is bitter end?: Bitter end is a noun.
What is the plural of bitter end?: The plural of bitter end is bitter ends.

Words near bitter end in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: bitter end (page history and authors); bitter end (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-bitter end.ogg.

Cite this entry: “bitter end.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bitter_end. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.