bitter principle 名詞
 苦味素
 Prin·ci·ple n.
 1. Beginning; commencement. [Obs.]
    Doubting sad end of principle unsound.   --Spenser.
 2. A source, or origin; that from which anything proceeds; fundamental substance or energy; primordial substance; ultimate element, or cause.
    The soul of man is an active principle.   --Tillotson.
 3. An original faculty or endowment.
    Nature in your principles hath set [benignity].   --Chaucer.
    Those active principles whose direct and ultimate object is the communication either of enjoyment or suffering.   --Stewart.
 4. A fundamental truth; a comprehensive law or doctrine, from which others are derived, or on which others are founded; a general truth; an elementary proposition; a maxim; an axiom; a postulate.
    Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection.   --Heb. vi. 1.
    A good principle, not rightly understood, may prove as hurtful as a bad.   --Milton.
 5. A settled rule of action; a governing law of conduct; an opinion or belief which exercises a directing influence on the life and behavior; a rule (usually, a right rule) of conduct consistently directing one's actions; as, a person of no principle.
    All kinds of dishonesty destroy our pretenses to an honest principle of mind.   --Law.
 6. Chem. Any original inherent constituent which characterizes a substance, or gives it its essential properties, and which can usually be separated by analysis; -- applied especially to drugs, plant extracts, etc.
    Cathartine is the bitter, purgative principle of senna.   --Gregory.
 Bitter principle, Principle of contradiction, etc. See under Bitter, Contradiction, etc.
 bitter principle
      n : any one of several hundred compounds having a bitter taste;
          not admitting of chemical classification