acerbity

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

As her New York Times obituary put it, “She specialized in sourness, or, more politely, acerbity, which she used to her comic advantage in roles as housekeepers, spinsters, wicked stepmothers, nuns and back-talking secretaries.”

From Slate • Aug. 16, 2019

And yet another worried about the prospect of a boycott of their companies’ products depending on the acerbity of their words.

From New York Times • Jan. 30, 2017

He lamented that there were “so many anecdotes” about Jobs’s acerbity: “His intention, and motivation, wasn’t to be hurtful.”

From The New Yorker • Feb. 16, 2015

That's not inappropriate, and once Christopher Salazar arrives as hero John Worthing, the contrast between his benign gravitas and Hunter's febrile acerbity is drolly amusing, a Victorian-era Mutt and Jeff.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 2, 2014

Now Mr. Croyland's vanity lay in his oddity and acerbity.

From The Smuggler: (Vol's I-III) A Tale by James, G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford)