sweet

Webster's Dictionary (1913)

Origin: OE. swete, swote, sote, AS. swēte; akin to OFries. swēte, OS. swōti, D. zoet, G. süss, OHG. suozi, Icel. saetr, soetr, Sw. söt, Dan. söd, Goth. suts, L. suavis, for suadvis, Gr. …, Skr. svādu sweet, svad, svād, to sweeten. √175. Cf. Assuage, Suave, Suasion.

1. Having an agreeable taste or flavor such as that of sugar; saccharine; — opposed to sour and bitter; as, a sweet beverage; sweet fruits; sweet oranges.

2. Pleasing to the smell; fragrant; redolent; balmy; as, a sweet rose; sweet odor; sweet incense.

The breath of these flowers is sweet to me.— Henry W. Longfellow

3. Pleasing to the ear; soft; melodious; harmonious; as, the sweet notes of a flute or an organ; sweet music; a sweet voice; a sweet singer.

To make his English sweet upon his tongue.— Geoffrey Chaucer

A voice sweet, tremulous, but powerful.— Nathaniel Hawthorne

4. Pleasing to the eye; beautiful; mild and attractive; fair; as, a sweet face; a sweet color or complexion.

Sweet interchange Of hill and valley, rivers, woods, and plains.— John Milton

5. Fresh; not salt or brackish; as, sweet water. Francis, Baron Verulam Bacon

6. Not changed from a sound or wholesome state. Specifically: (a) Not sour; as, sweet milk or bread. (b) Not state; not putrescent or putrid; not rancid; as, sweet butter; sweet meat or fish.

7. Pleasing to the mind; mild; gentle; calm; amiable; winning; persuasive; as, sweet manners.

Canst thou bind the sweet influence of Pleiades?— Job xxxviii. 31.

Mildness and sweet reasonableness is the one established rule of Christian working.— Matthew Arnold

☞ Sweet is often used in the formation of self-explaining compounds; as, sweet-blossomed, sweet-featured, sweet-smelling, sweet-tempered, sweet-toned, etc.

Sweet alyssum. Botany See Alyssum. — Sweet apple. Botany (a) Any apple of sweet flavor. (b) See Sweet-sop. — Sweet bay. Botany (a) The laurel (Laurus nobilis). (b) Swamp sassafras. — Sweet calabash Botany, a plant of the genus Passiflora (Passiflora maliformis) growing in the West Indies, and producing a roundish, edible fruit, the size of an apple. — Sweet cicely. Botany (a) Either of the North American plants of the umbelliferous genus Osmorrhiza having aromatic roots and seeds, and white flowers. Asa Gray (b) A plant of the genus Myrrhis (Myrrhis odorata) growing in England. — Sweet calamus, or Sweet cane. Botany Same as Sweet flag, below. — Sweet Cistus Botany, an evergreen shrub (Cistus Ladanum) from which the gum ladanum is obtained. — Sweet clover. Botany See Melilot. — Sweet coltsfoot Botany, a kind of butterbur (Petasites sagittata) found in Western North America. — Sweet corn Botany, a variety of the maize of a sweet taste. See the Note under Corn. — Sweet fern Botany, a small North American shrub (Comptonia asplenifolia syn. Myrica asplenifolia) having sweet-scented or aromatic leaves resembling fern leaves. — Sweet flag Botany, an endogenous plant (Acorus Calamus) having long flaglike leaves and a rootstock of a pungent aromatic taste. It is found in wet places in Europe and America. See Calamus, 2. — Sweet gale Botany, a shrub (Myrica Gale) having bitter fragrant leaves; — also called sweet willow, and Dutch myrtle. See 5th Gale. — Sweet grass Botany, holy, or Seneca, grass. — Sweet gum Botany, an American tree (Liquidambar styraciflua). See Liquidambar. — Sweet herbs, fragrant herbs cultivated for culinary purposes. — Sweet John Botany, a variety of the sweet William. — Sweet leaf Botany, horse sugar. See under Horse. — Sweet marjoram. Botany See Marjoram. — Sweet marten Zoology, the pine marten. — Sweet maudlin Botany, a composite plant (Achillea Ageratum) allied to milfoil. — Sweet oil, olive oil. — Sweet pea. Botany See under Pea. — Sweet potato. Botany See under Potato. — Sweet rush Botany, sweet flag. — Sweet spirits of niter Med. Chem. See Spirit of nitrous ether, under Spirit. — Sweet sultan Botany, an annual composite plant (Centaurea moschata), also, the yellow-flowered (Centaurea odorata); — called also sultan flower. — Sweet tooth, an especial fondness for sweet things or for sweetmeats. colloquial — Sweet William. (a) Botany A species of pink (Dianthus barbatus) of many varieties. (b) Zoology The willow warbler. (c) Zoology The European goldfinch; — called also sweet Billy. dialect (England) — Sweet willow Botany, sweet gale. — Sweet wine. See Dry wine, under Dry. — To be sweet on, to have a particular fondness for, or special interest in, as a young man for a young woman. colloquial William M. Thackeray

Synonyms: Sugary; saccharine; dulcet; luscious.

1. That which is sweet to the taste; — used chiefly in the plural. Specifically: (a) Confectionery, sweetmeats, preserves, etc. (b) Home-made wines, cordials, metheglin, etc.

2. That which is sweet or pleasant in odor; a perfume. “A wilderness of sweets.” John Milton

3. That which is pleasing or grateful to the mind; as, the sweets of domestic life.

A little bitter mingled in our cup leaves no relish of the sweet.— John Locke

4. One who is dear to another; a darling; — a term of endearment. “Wherefore frowns my sweet?” Ben Jonson

Sweetly. William Shakespeare

To sweeten. obsolete Nicholas Udall

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54