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

The play is a novice effort by a fledgling dramatist, but it isn’t helped by Mr. Staller’s additions to the text, which have none of Shaw’s comic acerbity.

From New York Times • Mar. 14, 2016

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

“Don’t be so scared,” the little doctor said with friendly acerbity, as he paused in the centre of the synagogue.

From The White Terror and The Red A novel of revolutionary Russia by Cahan, Abraham