bitterroot (biterrot)

1. The big-root, Me garrhiza Californica.-2. The Lewisia rediviva, a plant which gives its name to the Bitter Root mountains lying between Idaho and Montana. -3. Dogbane, Apocynum androsæmifolium. bitters (bit'erz), n. pl. [Pl. of bitter1, n.] 1. Bitter medicines generally, as cinchona, quinine, etc.-2. Specifically, a liquor (generally a spirituous liquor) in which bitter herbs or roots are steeped. Bitters are employed as stomachics, anthelminthics, and in various other ways. - Angostura bitters, a bitter tonic, much used in the West Indies as a preventive against malarial fevers and the like. Originally made at Angostura or Ciudad Bolivar, a city in Venezuela, it is now made also at Port of Spain, Trinidad. - Prairie bitters, a bitter-salt beverage common among the hunters and mountaineers of western America, made with a pint of water and a quarter of a gill of buffalo-gall. It is considered by them an excellent medicine.