rSearch and rummage refer to carefully or thoroughly looking for something missing or lost. To search is to carefully move through or look through a place or space to find a person or thing: We searched the amusement park for the missing child; He searched her desk for the letter. Rummage has a narrower range of application and specifies the manner of searching. If you rummage through a suitcase, you move things around or turn them over in order to search. Usually what is rummaged through is a receptacle or a space where things are very close together–a purse, a trash can, cupboards, drawers, an attic, or a wardrobe.  If there is only a carton of milk and a package of tofu dogs in the refrigerator, you can’t really rummage through that.

Bitter and acrimonious both describe a person’s nature, speech, or behavior as harsh with anger, resentment, or cynicism. Bitter suggests a deep dissatisfaction or disillusionment that has turned into a resentful or cynical grudge against someone or something–or everything–as if experience had left a bad taste in one’s mouth: her failed dreams had made her bitter. The tone of a bitter debate would be hateful, angry, or sarcastic. An acrimonious debate suggests an angry, even vicious exchange that may also be bitter, but generally is less rooted in personal resentment. However, given the frequent occurrence of acrimonious together with divorce there can be plenty of bitterness signalled by the word acrimonious.

Smooth has a number of meanings, most with positive connotations about texture or motion (smooth skin, smooth flight, smooth transition). However, when it’s used of a person or a person’s manner or speech, which is also suave’s domain, it can skew negative and suggest a pleasing, easy manner that is self-interested or manipulative (smooth talker, smooth operator), even if requiring admirable skill: He’s smooth, I have to admit! Suave, from a Latin word meaning “sweet,” suggests a smoothly agreeable and sophisticated manner or style. Its smoothness is a polished, confident, but inoffensive easiness and gentleness that pairs well with “sophisticated” and “debonair.” It can apply as much to appearance as to manner: looking suave in his white linen suit. Men, especially actors, are more likely than women to be called suave.