Definition of "acerb" [a•cerb]

• Variant of acerbic. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The morning my review ran, I got a call from an agent friend who is cultivated, extraordinarily smart and superbly acerb."
• "This way came Dr. John, in visage, in shape, in hue, as unlike the dark, acerb, and caustic little professor, as the fruit of the Hesperides might be unlike the sloe in the wild thicket; as the high-couraged but tractable"
• "John Richardson's piece on Judy Chicago is delightful, insightful, and nicely acerb."