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
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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
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