| 释义 |
▪ I. sweet, n.|swiːt|
Forms: see next.
[sweet a. used subst.]
1. a. That which is sweet to the taste; something having a sweet taste. Chiefly poet.
a1300Cursor M. 7126 Of þe etand þe mete vt sprang, And þe suete vte o þe strang. Ibid. 23979 He dranc þe sure and i þe suete. 1390Gower Conf. I. 82 Fulofte and thus the swete soureth, Whan it is knowe to the tast. 1590Spenser F.Q. i. iii. 30 A dram of sweet is worth a pound of sowre. 1607Shakes. Cor. iii. i. 157 Let them not licke The sweet which is their poyson. 1611Bible 1 Esdras ix. 51 Goe then and eate the fat, and drinke the sweet. 1781Cowper Conversat. 440 The mind..Visiting ev'ry flow'r with labour meet, And gathering all her treasures sweet by sweet.
b. A sweet food or drink.
c1400Destr. Troy 13683 Fortune..Lurkis in lightly with lustis in hert, Gers hym swolow a swete, þat swellis hym after. 1660F. Brooke tr. Le Blanc's Trav. 22 The Nobility of the Country affect much to eat Ambar, Musk, and other sweets. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 300 Such Rage of Honey in their Bosom beats: And such a Zeal they have for flow'ry Sweets. 1743Francis tr. Hor., Odes iv. xii. 22 Bring the glad merchandise, with sweets replete. 1802Eng. Encycl. V. 610/2 The purer sweets, as sugar... The unctuous and mucilaginous sweets, as the impure sugars, liquorice, &c. 1861F. Nightingale Nursing (ed. 2) 51, I have never known a person take to sweets when he was ill who disliked them when he was well. 1887Jefferies Amaryllis iii, If there were two courses, then bread between to prepare the palate, and to prevent the sweets from quarrelling with the acids.
c. pl. Syrup added to wine or other liquor to sweeten and improve its flavour; hence, wine or other liquor thus sweetened; applied spec. to British wines and cordials.
a1679Sir J. Moore Eng. Interest (1703) 33 The best way to Order your Sugar before you put it into your Cyder, is to make it into a kind of Syrup or Sweets. 1696Act 7 & 8 Will. III, c. 30 §6 Mixed Liquors commonly called and known by the Name of Sweets, made from foreign or English Materials. a1700B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Sweets, the Dreggs of Sugar used by Vintners, to allay the undue fermenting or fretting of their Wine. 1765Blackstone Comm. i. viii. 320 All artificial wines, commonly called sweets. 1842Penny Mag. 29 Oct. 431/1 Mark Beaufoy..entered his name at the Excise as a ‘maker of sweets’ about a century ago. 1845Dodd Brit. Manuf. 98 At first the name of ‘sweets’ was confined principally to the varieties of raisin-wine. 1889Act 52 & 53 Vict. c. 42 §28 The expression ‘sweets or made wines’ shall mean any liquor which is made from fruit and sugar..and which has undergone a process of fermentation.
d. spec. A sweet dish (a pudding, tart, cooked fruit, etc.), or one of several such, forming a separate course at a meal. Usu. pl. in early use.
1832F. Trollope Dom. Manners Amer. II. xxviii. 131 They are ‘extravagantly fond’..of puddings, pies, and all kinds of ‘sweets’. 1834Dickens Sk. Boz, Steam Excurs., The sweets [on the table] shook and trembled till it was quite impossible to help them. 1852Thackeray Esmond ii. xv, By the time the soup came he fancied they must have been hours at table; and as for the sweets and jellies, he thought they never would be done. a1864Hawthorne Grimshawe xix. (1891) 246 And entremets, and ‘sweets’, as the English call them. 1890R. C. Lehmann H. Fludyer 41 There was a delicious sweet for luncheon... It was like a sort of bird's-nest in spun barley-sugar with whipped cream eggs inside. 1954J. Betjeman Few Late Chrysanthemums 95, I know what I wanted to ask you—Is trifle sufficient for sweet? 1968[see pudding n. 6 a]. 1979J. Cooper Class xii. 202 Everything from lemon water ice to jam roly-poly pudding, Caroline would call ‘pudding’. She would never say ‘sweet’ or ‘dessert’.
e. A sweetmeat, esp. in lozenge or ‘drop’ form.
sweetie is earlier in this sense.
1851Mayhew Lond. Labour I. 203/2 Rose acid, which is a ‘transparent’ sweet. 1865Dickens Mut. Fr. i. v, The basket supplied the few small lots of fruit and sweets that he offered for sale. 1877R. J. More Under the Balkans xv. 216 Sweets, jelly, and water were then handed round by the bridesmaids to the assembled guests.
f. pl. Drugs, esp. amphetamines. U.S. slang.
1961[see hold v. 15 f]. 1979S. Smith Survivor xxi. 221 A whole load of minor drugs, mostly amphetamines—known as ‘sweets’, ‘blues’ and ‘black bombers’.
2. Sweetness of taste; sweet taste. rare.
c1381Chaucer Parl. Foules 161 For thu of loue hast lost thi tast, y gesse As seek man hath of swete & bitternesse. 1705Beverley Virginia ii. iv. §13. (1722) 113 Their [sc. mulberries'] Taste..being of a faintish Sweet, without any Tartness. 1887G. T. Ladd Physiol. Psychol. ii. iii. §13. 313 It seems tolerably well established that sweet and sour are tasted chiefly with the tip of the tongue.
3. a. That which is pleasant to the mind or feelings; something that affords enjoyment or gratifies desire; (a) pleasure, (a) delight; the pleasant part of something. In later use chiefly in pl., the pleasures or delights of something.
Often in contrast with bitter, sour, and in expressions retaining literal phraseology, e.g. to taste or suck the sweet(s) of.
sing.1377Langl. P. Pl. B. xi. 250 Al though it be soure to suffre þere cometh swete [C. xiii. 143 a swete] after. 1423Jas. I Kingis Q. clxxxii, Euery wicht his awin suete or sore Has maist In mynde. c1440Jacob's Well 106 He had leuere lesyn thre massys þan to forgo oo slepe or o sweet in þe morwenyng. 1553T. Wilson Rhet. (1580) 31 Where the sweete hath his sower ioyned with hym. 1560Rolland Seven Sages 70 He..had slokinnit of bedsolace the sweit. 1589Cooper Admon. 178 Princes..which suck the sweete from the people of God. 1611Shakes. Wint. T. iv. iii. 3 When Daffadils begin to peere,..Why, then comes in the sweet o' the yeere. 1637Heywood Pleas. Dial. Wks. 1874 VI. 302 Who can know the sweet of ease, That never was in paine? 1697W. Dampier Voy. round World (1699) 64 Our Jamaica⁓men Trade thither indeed, and find the sweet of it. 1725Pope Odyss. v. 152 Love, the only sweet of life. 1878Browning La Saisiaz 310 Must..Every sweet warn ‘'Ware my bitter!’
pl.1583B. Melbancke Philotimus C iij, Alwayes shun such bitter sweets. 1590Lodge Rosalind (1592) G iij, Of all soft sweets, I like my mistris brest. 1596Shakes. Tam. Shr. i. i. 28 To sucke the sweets of sweete Philosophie. 1607Tourneur Rev. Trag. iv. i. G j, An incredible Act..Twixt my Step-mother and the Bastard, oh, Incestuous sweetes betweene 'em. 1694tr. Milton's Lett. State Wks. 1738 II. 175 Your Lordships..who..enjoy the sweets of Peace both at home and abroad. 1697Dryden æneid xi. 417 The Gods have envy'd me the sweets of Life. 1749Fielding Tom Jones iii. vi, Surfeited with the sweets of marriage, or disgusted by its bitters. 1826F. Reynolds Life & Times II. 436 Being now compelled daily, to taste more and more of the sweets of management. 1858R. S. Surtees Ask Mamma xlv. 200 Mr. Bankhead, knowing the sweets of office, again aspired to high places. 1861Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. x, The run..up to town to..taste some of the sweets of the season.
b. Contrasted with sweat.
1588Kyd Househ. Philos. Index, Wks. (1901) 236 Gaine purchased with sweat or sweete. 1607Hieron Wks. I. 397 We haue heard hitherto of the sweat, now let vs heare the sweet of religion. 1610Mason Turke v. i, Ere we had relisht the sweete of her sweete [sic], that is the fruit of her labors. 1667J. Flavel Saint Indeed (1754) 129 He that will not have the sweat, must not expect the sweet of religion. 1670Ray Prov. 146 No sweet without some sweat.
4. A beloved person, darling, sweetheart. (Cf. sweet a. 8 c.)
In ME. verse that swete is freq. used conventionally.
13..Guy Warw. (A.) 4578 No y no loued non bot þat swete. c1369Chaucer Dethe Blaunche 832 Hyt was my swete ryght al hir selve. c1400Destr. Troy 10567 Myche sorow hade his Syre the sun to behold, And oft swonyt that swete, & in swyme felle. c1480Henryson Mor. Fab., Cock & Fox vii, At his end I did my besie curis To hald his heid..Syne at the last, the sweit swelt in my arme. 1592Shakes. Rom. & Jul. iii. iii. 162 Bid my Sweete prepare to chide. 1640tr. Verdere's Rom. of Rom. III. 66 Among the which [gentle⁓women] perceiving my Claristea (so is this inexorable sweet named) to be one. 1664Butler Hud. ii. i. 394 This made the beauteous Queen of Crete To take a Town-Bull for her Sweet. 1703Rules of Civility 25 As, for a Governor, speaking of his Wife, to say,..My Sweet is the most prudent. 1855Tennyson Maud i. xxii. xi, She is coming, my own, my sweet. 1868Morris Earthly Par. (1870) I. i. 289 What feat do ye This eve in honour of my sweet and me?
5. a. A sweet sound. poet. rare—1.
1590Spenser F.Q. i. xii. 39 Yet wist no creature, whence that heauenly sweet Proceeded.
b. pl. A woman's breasts. poet.
1817Keats Poems 49 Ah! who can e'er forget so fair a being? Who can forget her half retiring sweets? 1870D. G. Rossetti Poems (ed. 2) 111 Your silk ungirdled and unlac'd And warm sweets open to the waist.
6. Sweetness of smell, fragrance; pl. sweet odours, scents, or perfumes. poet.
1594Drayton Sonn., Amour xxv, Some muz'd to see the earth enuy the ayre, Which from her lyps exhald refined sweet. c1600Shakes. Sonn. xcix, More flowers I noted, yet I none could see, But sweet, or culler it had stolne from thee. 1612Webster White Devil ii. i. 165 The naturall sweetes Of the Spring-violet. a1718Prior 2nd Hymn Callimachus 50 Perfumes distill their Sweets. 1784Cowper Task i. 444 He..riots in the sweets of ev'ry breeze. 1820Shelley Skylark 55 The scent it gives Makes faint with too much sweet those heavy-wingèd thieves. 1821Clare Vill. Minstr. II. 81 Perfuming evening with a luscious sweet.
7. pl. Substances having a sweet smell; fragrant flowers or herbs; † scents, perfumes. Now rare.
1602Shakes. Ham. v. i. 266 Sweets, to the sweet. 1639–40in Swayne Churchw. Acc. Sarum (1896) 320 Sweetes to burne in the Church at Chrismass. 1667Milton P.L. v. 294 Through Groves of Myrrhe, And flowring Odours... A Wilderness of Sweets. 1691Lond. Gaz. No. 2641/4 The Bottle of Sweets [viz. perfume]. 1784Cowper Task ii. 257 Strew the deck With lavender, and sprinkle liquid sweets. 1837H. Martineau Soc. Amer. II. 63 The rich carnations and other sweets that bloomed in the garden.
8. attrib. and Comb. (chiefly in sense 1 e), as sweet-box, sweet coupon, sweet-maker, sweet-making, sweet paper, sweet ration, sweet rationing, sweet-shop, sweet-stall, sweet-standing; (sense 1 d) sweet course; sweet trolley, a dining trolley from which a choice of cold sweet dishes may be offered in a restaurant.
1943N. Last Diary 25 Dec. in Nella Last's War (1983) 270 Not a flower, a card—or a sweet, although you had the *sweet coupons in your pocket. 1974G. Markstein Cooler xlvi. 164 Grace spent all the sweet coupons he had left on buying a bar of chocolate.
1892Girl's Own Paper 23 Apr. 476/2 The *sweet course can also be arranged for by having some stewed fruit..with a mould of rice or cornflour. 1981P. Van Greenaway ‘Cassandra’ Bell vii. 83 The evening meal..lasted ten minutes... Cherry stabbed a fork at his once or twice, derided the sweet course, and went.
1896Westm. Gaz. 18 Mar. 8/2 A Hoxton sugar-boiler and *sweet-maker. 1731–3P. Shaw Chem. Lect. xi. (1755) 203 The Art of *Sweet-Making might receive a high Degree of Improvement, by using pure Sugar as one general wholesome Sweet, instead of those infinite Mixtures of Honey, Raisins, Syrups, Treacle, Stum, Cyder, &c. wherewith the Sweet-Makers supply the Wine-Coopers.
1964Guardian 1 Feb. 8/3 An occasional *sweetpaper flutters striped among the bushes. 1979M. Ingate Tomb of Flowers xxi. 153 A few sweet papers, and one or two bottles.
1944*Sweet ration [see ration 3 c]. 1978E. Malpass Wind brings up Rain i. 11 She tried to take back the toffee—she needed her sweet ration.
1942Times 24 July 2/6 As a prelude to the introduction of chocolate and *sweet rationing..there is heavy selling at some retail shops.
1879E. K. Bates Egypt. Bonds II. vi. 166 The *sweet-shops, with their sugary wares.
1882East. Daily Press 17 July 3 All day long the *sweet stalls..were besieged by battalions of the common honey bee.
1902‘Q’ White Wolf 91 He had bought a packet off one of the *sweet-standings.
1963P.M.L.A. Dec. p. vii/2 [U.K.] *sweet trolley: [U.S.] dessert cart. 1964L. Deighton Funeral in Berlin xv. 93 The steak was O.K. and I was strong-willed enough not to hit the sweet-trolley too hard. 1981Radio Times 19–25 Sept. 21/1 It's irritating being pointed at in a restaurant, like a sweet trolley.
▪ II. sweet, a. and adv.|swiːt|
Forms: 1 swoete, Northumb. suoet, suet, 1–6 swete, 2–6 swet, 3–6 suete, 4–5 suet, Sc. sweyt, 4–8 Sc. sweit, 5–7 sweete, (2 sweote, 3 swiete, 4 suette, swett, squete, sweyte, Kent. zuete, 5 swette, sqwete, swyte, 6 Sc. sweitt, sueit, 7 suiet, 8 Sc. suit), 6– sweet. compar. 1 swet(t)ra, 3–5 swettere, (1 swoetra, 3 swettre, swetture, 4 -ore, -our, 5 -ir, -ur; 4 squetter, suetter), 4–5 swetter; 4 swetere, Sc. -are, 6 Sc. -ar, suetar, 5– sweeter. superl. 1–5 swetest, 2–5 -este, 5 -ist, 5– sweetest; also 3–5 swetteste, 4–5 -est, 5 -ist.
[Com. Teut.: OE. swéte, = OFris. swêt, OS. swôti, MLG. sote, sute, (LG. söte, söt), MDu. soete, suete (Du. zoet), OHG. suoȥi, swuoȥi (MHG. sueȥe, G. süss), ON. sœ́tr (Sw. söt, Da. sød):—OTeut. *swōtja-, *swōti-, f. swōt- (whence OE. swóte soot adv.):—Indo-eur. swād- (with variant swăd-), in Skr. svādús sweet, svádati to be sweet, Gr. ἡδύς sweet, ἥδεσθαι to rejoice, ἡδονή pleasure, ἁνδάνειν (ἕαδον, ἕαδα) to please, L. suāvis (:—*swādwis) sweet, suādēre to advise (properly, to make something pleasant to). Gothic shows another grade of the root in sū̆ts.]
A. adj.
1. a. Pleasing to the sense of taste; having a pleasant taste or flavour; spec. having the characteristic flavour (ordinarily pleasant when not in excess) of sugar, honey, and many ripe fruits, which corresponds to one of the primary sensations of taste. Also said of the taste or flavour. Often opposed to bitter or sour (so also in fig. senses).
See also special collocations in C. 1.
c888ælfred Boeth. xxxix. §9 Þæt is forhwi se gooda læce selle þam halum men seftne drenc & swetne. a1000Phœnix 193 (Gr.) Þa swetestan somnað & gædrað wyrta wynsume & wudubleda. c1250Death 106 in O.E. Misc., Hwer beoð þine dihsches Midd þine swete sonde? 1303R. Brunne Handl. Synne 1398 Delytable, & swete of sauoure. 1377Langl. P. Pl. B. xii. 264 Þe larke..is..swifter þan þe pecok, And of flesch,..fatter and swetter. 1393Ibid. C. xix. 60 Somme [apples] ar swettere þan some and sonnere wollen rotye. c1449Pecock Repr. i. xiii. 67 Hony is swettist to him of alle othere metis. 1523Fitzherb. Husb. §23 The yonger and the grener that the grasse is, the softer and sweter it wyll be, whan it is hey. 1574Newton Health Mag. I j b, The fleash that is about the bones is sweeter and better to digest then other. 1594Marlowe & Nashe Dido ii. i, Ile giue thee Sugar-almonds, sweete Conserues. 1596Edward III, ii. i. 406 A sugred, sweet and most delitious tast. 1667Milton P.L. v. 68 O Fruit Divine, Sweet of thy self, but much more sweet thus cropt. 1765Museum Rust. IV. 398 Fine-flavoured, mellow, sweet beef from beasts fed with oil-cakes. 1818Scott Br. Lamm. xi, A tart—a flam—and some nonsense sweet things, and comfits. 1827Faraday Chem. Manip. xxiv. (1842) 629 The liquid will communicate a very aromatic sweet taste to it. 1883Cassell's Dict. Cookery 772/1 Rose Sauce for Sweet Puddings. 1887Bentley Man. Bot. (ed. 5) 824 Secondary products of metastasis, some of which, as sweet secretions, &c., are necessary for the perpetuation of the species.
b. In similative and other proverbial phr.
c825Vesp. Ps. xviii. 11 [xix. 10] Dulciora super mel & favum, swoetran ofer huniᵹ & biobræd. c1386Chaucer Miller's T. 20 He hym self as sweete as is the roote Of lycorys. a1400–50Wars Alex. 3855 Was neuir na hony in na hyue vndire heuen swettir. c1403Lydg. Temple of Glas 1251 Swete is swettir eftir bitternes. 14..Lat. & Eng. Prov. (MS. Douce 52) lf. 16 b, Hungur makyth harde bonys swete. 1546J. Heywood Prov. (1867) 16 Sweete meate will haue sowre sawce. a1553Udall Royster D. i. iii. (Arb.) 20 Soft fire maketh sweete malte, good Madge. 1600Shakes. A.Y.L. iii. ii. 115 Sweetest nut, hath sowrest rinde. 1607[see sauce n. 1 b]. 1671T. Hunt Abeced. Scholast. 79 The sweetest flesh is next the bone. 1697Dryden Virg. Past. vii. 53 Fair Galathea, with thy silver Feet, O, whiter than the Swan, and more than Hybla sweet. 1721Bailey s.v., After sweet Meat comes sowr Sauce. 1898W. W. Jacobs Sea Urchins, Choice Spirits (1906) 90 ‘The meat's awful.’ ‘It's as sweet as nuts,’ said the skipper.
2. a. Pleasing to the sense of smell; having a pleasant smell or odour; fragrant. Also said of the smell or odour.
900tr. Bæda's Hist. iii. viii. (1890) 174 Hordærn..balsami & þara deorwyrðestena wyrta & þara swetestena þara þe in middanᵹearde wæron. 971Blickl. Hom. 59 Þa swetan stencas ᵹestincað þara wuduwyrta. c1175Lamb. Hom. 53 Þe sweote smel of þe chese. c1220Bestiary 508 Vt of his ðrote is smit an onde, Ðe swetteste ðing ðat is o londe. a1272Lune Ron 151 in O.E. Misc. 97 Þu art swetture þane eny flur. a1300Cursor M. 1381 Cipres, be þe suete sauur, Bitakens ur suete [Fairf. squete] sauueur. c1386Chaucer Prol. 5 Zephirus..with his swete breeth. c1425Cast. Persev. 801 in Macro Plays 101 Parkys, poundys, & many pens, Þei semyn to ȝou swetter þanne sens. 1542Boorde Dyetary xx. (1870) 281 Parsley..doth cause a man to haue a swete breth. 1590Shakes. Mids. N. ii. i. 252, I know a banke..Quite ouer-cannoped..With sweet muske roses, and with Eglantine. 1596― Tam. Shr. Induct. i. 49 Burne sweet Wood to make the Lodging sweete. 1650Fuller Pisgah iii. ii. §5 Pillasters..of..Almuggin trees..which, if odoriferous,..made that passage as sweet to the smell, as specious to the sight. 1781Cowper Hope 290 Sweet scent, or lovely form, or both combined. 1850Tennyson In Mem. lxxxvi, Sweet after showers, ambrosial air.
†b. spec. Perfumed, scented. See also sweet-bag, -ball, -powder (in C. 1 a), sweet-water. Obs.
1573–4in Feuillerat Revels Q. Eliz. (1908) 208 Sweete lightes of white wex for the same viis. 1592Acc.-Bk. W. Wray in Antiquary XXXII. 79 A barrell swet sop, xxix s. 1611Shakes. Wint. T. iv. iv. 253 You promis'd me a tawdry⁓lace, and a paire of Sweet Gloues. 1656Earl of Monmouth tr. Boccalini's Pol. Touchstone 407 The Monopoly of making sweet Gloves to that Nation whose hand did stink insufferably.
3. a. Free from offensive or disagreeable taste or smell; not corrupt, putrid, sour, or stale; free from taint or noxious matter; in a sound and wholesome condition.
c1250Gen. & Ex. 3302 A funden trew ðor-inne dede Moyses, and it wurð swet on ðe stede. a1300Cursor M. 6352–4 Þe water was al suete alson, Þe water þat sua fuli stanc, Suetter neuer þai siþen drank. 1501Reg. Privy Seal Scotl. I. 100/1 [3½] lastis of salmond, ful, rede, and swete. 1596Harington Metam. Ajax E iv b, Because hee had not seene better to the keeping sweet of the streets. 1607Dekker Westw. Hoe i. Wks. 1873 II. 291 He hath an excellent trick to keepe Lobsters and Crabs sweet in summer. 1655Marquis of Worcester Cent. Inv. § 100 [They] furnish Cities with Water..as well as keep them Sweet, running through several Streets. 1681Langford Plain Instr. Fruit-trees 139 Cyder Fruit..laid upon a sweet and dry floor, in a heap. 1685Compl. Servant Maid 144 You must wash your own Linen, keeping your self sweet and clean. 1754Compl. Cyder-man 114 A sufficient Number of sweet Casks to put it into. 1791Trans. Soc. Arts IX. p. xvii, Preserving Fresh Water sweet, for the use of Seamen during long voyages. 1859Jephson Brittany v. 55, I question whether the beds would be so clean and sweet. 1861Mrs. Beeton Bk. Househ. Managem. (1880) 385 In choosing a ham, ascertain that it is perfectly sweet. 1883Gresley Gloss. Coal-mining, Sweet, free from fire-damp or other gases, or from fire-stink.
b. spec. Of water: Fresh, not salt. Also of butter: Fresh, not salted. (Cf. G. süsswasser, F. eau douce, etc.) See also sweet water.
c1000Sax. Leechd. II. 134 Drince weᵹbrædan seaw on swetum wætre. c1220Bestiary 320 He lepeð ðanne wið mikel list, Of swet water he haueð ðrist. a1425Cursor M. 6349 (Trin.) Þei fond..Watir bittur as any bryne. As bryne hit was & no swettur. 1480Caxton Myrr. xx. 109 Alle watres come of the see; as wel the swete as the salt. 1553Eden Treat. Newe Ind. (Arb.) 26 In this deserte are..founde bytter waters: but more often fresshe and sweete waters. 1591A. W. Bk. Cookrye 8 b, In the seething pot put in a peece of sweet Butter. 1661Lovell Hist. Anim. & Min. Introd., Living in rivers and other sweet waters. 1709T. Robinson Nat. Hist. Westmoreld. iv. 23 The subterrene Waters are those sweet Mineral Feeders, which do implete the Body of the Earth. 1796Morse Amer. Geog. I. 84 Animals which..live alternately on land or in sweet water. 1925N.Y. Produce Rev. 27 May 95 (Advt.), Specializing in sweet butter. 1952M. Small Special Diet Cook Bk. 201 Grocers..catering to the Jewish trade usually carry sweet butter. 1971S. Walker Highland Cookbook 8 Scones are delicious with sweet butter, in Scotland called fresh butter.
†c. Of bread (in 16th c. versions of and allusions to Scripture): Unleavened. (Opposed to sour as in sour-dough.) Obs.
1526Tindale Mark xiv. 12 The first daye of swete breed. 1535Coverdale Exod. xxxiv. 18 The feast of swete bred shalt thou kepe. 1593Nashe Christ's T. Wks. 1904 II. 48 The feast of Tabernacles, the feast of sweet Bread, and the feast of Weekes.
d. Of milk: Fresh, not sour: see sweet milk in C. 1 a.
1812Sir J. Sinclair Syst. Husb. Scot. i. 105 The milk can be sold sweet, as taken from the cow.
e. Old Chem. and Metallurgy. Free from corrosive salt, sulphur, acid, etc. In mod. use also in the Oil Industry, of petroleum or natural gas: free from sulphur compounds, esp. hydrogen sulphide or alkyl mercaptans.
1666Boyle Orig. Formes & Qual. ii. iv. 315 Chymists..terme the Calces of Metals and other Bodies dulcifi'd, if they be freed from all corrosive salts and sharpness of Tast, sweet, though they have nothing at all of positive sweetness. 1863Edin. Rev. Apr. 411 The ‘sweetest’ kinds of coal (the freest from sulphur) are reserved for the smelting furnace. 1881Raymond Mining Gloss., Sweet-roasting. 1911Rep. Brit. Assoc. Adv. Sci. 1910 612 The Coal Measures include ‘sweet’, i.e., non-sulphurous, coals at several horizons. 1919E. W. Dean Motor Gasoline Properties (U.S. Bur. Mines Techn. Paper No. 214) 25 If the liquid remains unchanged in color and if the sulphur film is bright yellow or only slightly discolored.., the test shall be reported negative and the gasoline considered ‘sweet’. 1950[see hydrodesulphurization]. 1975Offshore Engineer Sept. 44/3 The sweet gas is extracted through wells drilled by a Saipem rig. 1980Blair & Ketchum's Country Jrnl. Oct. 6/3 Light, so-called ‘sweet’, crude yields a high percentage of automotive gasoline.
4. a. Pleasing to the ear; having or giving a pleasant sound; musical, melodious, harmonious: said of a sound, a voice, an instrument, a singer or performer on an instrument.
c900tr. Bæda's Hist. iv. iii. (1890) 264 Þa ᵹeherde he..þa swetestan stefne & þa fæᵹrestan singendra. a1300Cursor M. 1030 Þar sune es soft and suet sang. a1366Chaucer Rom. Rose 768 In loreyn her notes bee Fulle swetter than in this contre. c1460Towneley Myst. xv. 13 A! myghtfull god, what euer this ment, so swete of toyn. c1500Melusine i. 7 He stood styl..to here her swette & playsaunt voyce. 1530Palsgr. 278/1 Swetetunyng, modulation. a1548Hall Chron., Hen. VIII, 214 b, iiii. Muses plaiyng on seueral swete instrumentes. 1560Bible (Geneva) 2 Sam. xxiii. 1 Dauid..the swete singer of Israel. 1599Shakes., etc. Pass. Pilgr. 282 Cleare wels spring not, sweete birds sing not. 1602― Ham. iii. i. 166 Like sweet Bels iangled, out of tune, and harsh. 1604E. G[rimstone] D'Acosta's Hist. Indies vii. iii. 500 Their tongue and pronountiation is very sweete and pleasant. 1617Moryson Itin. i. 152 A paire of Organs doth make sweet musicke. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 680 Th' Infernal Troops..list'ning, crowd the sweet Musician's side. 1780Cowper Doves 37 Thus sang the sweet sequester'd bird, Soft as the passing wind. 1836Dubourg Violin i. (1878) 11 The viol instruments were decidedly sweet, but comparatively dull. 1859Tennyson Marr. Geraint 329 The sweet voice of a bird.
b. Hence, applied to music, esp. jazz, played at a steady tempo without improvisation, or to this style of playing and its exponents. Cf. hot a. 8 g. Orig. and chiefly U.S.
1924[see hot a. 8 g]. 1927Melody Maker May 477/1 A really good saxophonist..must be able to render a sweet melody correctly phrased and as though his soul were in it, without a trend to exaggerate sloppy sentiment. 1933Fortune Aug. 47/1 He is decidedly not a sweet trombonist—he doesn't play sentimentally with lots of vibrato. 1934S. R. Nelson All about Jazz iii. 66 If it is of the melody type, and without much syncopation, the number is treated in the ‘sweet’ manner. 1956A. Hodeir Jazz: its Evolution & Essence viii. 129 Both ‘straight’ jazz and ‘sweet’ music..make use of a sonority and a melodic and harmonic language that are exaggeratedly sugar-coated. 1981Oxford Times 6 Feb. 13/1 The Dorseys' orchestra at this time was sweet rather than swinging, which will disappoint those like myself who prefer the jazzier side of Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey.
5. Pleasing (in general); yielding pleasure or enjoyment; agreeable, delightful, charming. (Only literary in unemotional use: cf. e.)
a. to the mind or feelings.
c888ælfred Boeth. xxxv. §4 Hi..meahton eaðe seggan soðspell, ᵹif him þa leasunga næren swetran. c900tr. Bæda's Hist. v. xxiii. (1890) 482 Me symble swete & wynsum wæs, ðæt ic oþþe leornode oþþe lærde oððe write. c1200Trin. Coll. Hom. 33 Ac swo þe wowe þinkeð biter, þe hwile þe he lesteð, swo þincð wele þe swettere þan hit cumeð þarafter. a1225Ancr. R. 294 Drauh, ase he dude, þet swete likunge into smeortunge. c1250Gen. & Ex. 210 Paradis, An erd al ful of swete blis. c1320Sir Tristr. 631 Þe ring was fair to se, Þe ȝift was wel swete. 1362Langl. P. Pl. A. Prol. 83 Persones and parisch prestes..askeþ leue..To singe þer for Simonye, for seluer is swete. 1377Ibid. B. xv. 179 Þough he bere hem no bred, he bereth hem swetter lyflode. 1393Ibid. C. xxi. 219 He hadde nat wist wyterly wheþer deþ wer soure oþer sweyte. c1449Pecock Repr. i. xiii. 66 In the historial parties of the Oold Testament and of the Newe, is miche delectable and sweete. 1560J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 337 b, How swete is y⊇ name of peace, and how comfortable a thing it is. 1567J. Maplet Gr. Forest 4 b, [It] is otherwise effectuous to bring a man in sweete sleepe. 1575Gascoigne Glasse Govt. iv. vi, Although it seeme unto some men a sweete thing to commaunde. 1600Shakes. A.Y.L. ii. i. 12 Sweet are the vses of aduersitie. 1604― Ham. iii. iv. 209 (Qo. 2) O tis most sweete When in one line two crafts directly meete. 1609[see revenge n. 1]. 1638Junius Paint. Ancients 119 Art, abounding with many sweet vices, drew still the eyes..of unadvised spectators. 1643Trapp Comm. Gen. xl. 3 A sweet providence; that these obnoxious officers should be sent to Joseph's prison. 1738Wesley Hymn, ‘Let us go forth’ ii, When He vouchsafes our Hands to use, It makes the Labour sweet. 1784Cowper Task i. 94 Sweet sleep enjoys the curate in his desk. Ibid. ii. 482 Oh, popular applause, what heart of man Is proof against thy sweet seducing charms? 1801Wordsw. Sparrow's Nest 19 A heart, the fountain of sweet tears. 1876M. E. Braddon J. Haggard's Dau. x, It was sweeter to you to help others than to be happy yourself. 1882W. Ballantine Exper. iv. 41, I received half a guinea, the sweetest that ever found its way into my pocket.
b. to the senses; esp. to the sight = Lovely, of charming appearance.
a1366Chaucer Rom. Rose 622 And thus he walketh to solace Hym and his folk for swetter place To pleyn ynne he may not fynde. 1375Barbour Bruce xvi. 66 Quhen byrdis syngis on the spray,..For softnes of that sweit sesoune. c1430Chev. Assigne 44 A seluer cheyne Eche on of hem hadde, a-bowte his swete swyre. 1590Spenser F.Q. ii. x. 47 Warlike Cæsar, tempted with the name Of this sweet Island. 1617Moryson Itin. i. 99 The place where the Marchants meete, called la Loggia, lying vpon the sea, is as sweete an open roome, as euer I saw. 1632Lithgow Trav. iv. 137 The sweetest face, the youngest age, and whitest skin was in greatest value and request. 1645Symonds Diary (Camden) 175 His Majestie lay at Mr. Crompton's howse, a sweet place in a fyne parke. a1700Evelyn Diary 23 Apr. an. 1646, This sweete Towne [sc. Vincenza] has more well-built Palaces than any of its dimensions in all Italy. 1812Byron Ch. Har. i. lxxix, On high The corse [of the bull killed in the bull-fight] is piled—sweet sight for vulgar eyes. 1837Campbell Cora Linn ii, It was as sweet an Autumn day As ever shone on Clyde. 1842Borrow Bible in Spain xxvi. 282 It is a sweet spot, and the prospect which opens from it is extensive.
¶ The phr. sweet in (the, one's) bed has been used with various implications.
a1300Havelok 2927 [He] dide him þere sone wedde Hire þat was ful swete in bedde. 1721Kelly Sc. Prov. 290 Sweet in the Bed, and sweir up in the Morning, was never a good Housewife. a1800in Laing Sel. Anc. Pop. P. Scotl. (1822) xxiii. Introd., A Clown is a Clown both at home and abroad; When a Rake he is comely, and sweet in his bed.
c. Of song or discourse, and hence transf. of a poet, orator, etc., with mixture of sense 4: Pleasing to the ear and mind; pleasant to hear or listen to; sometimes implying ‘persuasive, winning’, † or in bad sense, ‘alluring, enticing’.
c1386Chaucer Prol. 265 Somwhat he lipsed for his wantownesse To make his englissh sweete vp on his tonge. 1423Jas. I Kingis Q. iv, His metir suete..full of moralitee. c1480Henryson Mor. Fab. Prol. i, Thair polite termes of sweit Rhetorie. 1526Tindale Rom. xvi. 18 By swete preachynges and flatterynge wordes [they] deceave the hertes of the innocentes. a1533Ld. Berners Gold. Bk. M. Aurel. (1546) E j, He was so swete in his wordes, that many tymes he was harde more than thre houres togyther. 1612Brinsley Lud. Lit. xiii. (1627) 175 Such a one [sc. book] as is most easie, both for the sweetest Latine and choisest matter. 1632Milton L'Allegro 133 Sweetest Shakespear fancies childe. 1746Francis tr. Horace, Art of Poetry 113 Whose rapid Numbers, suited to the Stage,..With sweet Variety were found to please.
d. ironically: cf. fine a. 12 c.
1656G. Collier Answ. 15 Quest. 18 Here's another sweet inference. 1677Miege Eng.-Fr. Dict. s.v., I should have made a sweet business on't for my self. 1725T. Thomas in MSS. Dk. Portland (Hist. MSS. Comm.) VI. 133 We had a specimen of the sweet road we were to clamber through,..a pretty sharp ascent..full of loose, ragged stones. 1850Smedley F. Fairlegh xl, Oh! they made a sweet row, I can tell you.
e. In colloq. use, an emotional epithet expressive of the speaker's personal feelings as to the attractiveness of the object.
1779Mirror No. 41 ⁋7 Miss Betsy had taken down some sweet copies of verses, as she called them, in her memorandum book. 1782F. Burney Cecilia i. iv, ‘I assure you’, she continued, ‘she has all Paris in her disposal; the sweetest caps! the most beautiful trimmings! and her ribbons are quite divine!’ 1840Thackeray Barber Cox June, Honourable Tom Fitz-Warter, cousin of Lord Byron's; smokes all day; and has written the sweetest poems you can imagine. 1884Boston (Mass.) Jrnl. 22 Nov. 2/5 A new fashion in false hair is quite sweet. 1887Jessopp Arcady viii. 240 She falls in love with some sweet thing in hats or handkerchiefs.
f. Used as an intensifier in certain slang phrases (often of a coarse nature) meaning ‘nothing at all’. See also F.A. s.v. F III. 3, Fanny Adams 2, S.F.A. s.v. S 4 a. Also sweet nothing.
1958F. Norman Bang to Rights i. 28 You can do sweet B.A. about it. 1959I. & P. Opie Lore & Lang. Schoolch. xvii. 365 They stand on the field and they rave and they shout On subjects they know sweet nothing about. 1973B. Broadfoot Ten Lost Years ix. 95 The government provided sweet bugger all. Absolutely sweet bugger all. 1973B. Turner Hot-Foot vi. 43 What had I gained for my trouble? Sweet nothing, that's what.
6. In extended use: Having an agreeable or benign quality, influence, operation, or effect. Chiefly technical: see quots.a. Favourable, genial.
13..E.E. Allit. P. C. 236 Styffe stremes & streȝt hem strayned a whyle..Tyl a swetter ful swyþe hem sweȝed to bonk. 1594Plat Jewell-ho. i. 50 Some further & sweeter helps for her barren groundes. 1824Loudon Encycl. Gard. §3295 After the bed has come to a sweet heat, shut down close at night.
b. Of land, products, or the like: Free from bitter or similar deleterious qualities.
1577Googe tr. Heresbach's Husb. 24 The land..is..called..pleasaunt ground, sweete, blacke, rotten, and mellowed, which are the signes of good ground. 1578Lyte Dodoens vi. xxiv. 688 Bay..groweth plentifully..by the sea syde in saltishe groundes..and dieth not in the winter season, as it doth in sweete groundes. 1649W. Blithe Eng. Improv. xxiii. 140 Which sorts of Land if Rich, and Sweet, will lose Advance by Ploughing. 1765Museum Rust. III. 239 The land most suitable for this plant [sc. teazel] is that of a thin sweet surface, and marly bottom. 1839Murchison Silur. Syst. i. x. 135 From its sulphureous properties, it is also preferred to coal of the sweetest and best quality. 1840Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl. III. 296/2 Iron of an excellent quality, which they term sweet-iron.
c. Easily managed, handled, or dealt with; working or moving easily or smoothly.
1673R. Head Canting Acad. 192 The fourteenth a Gamester, if he sees the Hic sweet, He presently drops down a Cog in the street. 1725New Cant. Dict., Sweet, easy to be taken in: Also expert, dexterous, clever: As, Sweet's your Hand, said of one who has the Knack of stealing by Sleight of Hand. 1801Strutt Sports & Past. i. i. 16 Beasts of sweet flight,..the buck, the doe, the bear, the rein deer, the elk, and the spytard. 1883Stevenson Treas. Isl. ii. vii, You never imagined a sweeter schooner—a child might sail her. 1915Blackw. Mag. Sept. 316/1 She was a sweet ship in a seaway if one knew her idiosyncrasies. 1937Times 11 Dec. 4/7 The engine is, in my opinion, more responsive and sweet than its predecessor. 1955Times 10 May 7/6 The clutch is exceptionally sweet in operation, a point which helps to make the car easily manoeuvrable. 1975Washington Post 25 Jan. a19/1 As J. Robert Oppenheimer said of the hydrogen bomb: ‘It was so technically sweet, we had to do it.’
†d. Art. Delicate, soft. Obs. (Cf. sweeten 8 b.)
1662Evelyn Chalcogr. 66 So sweet, even and bold was his work. 1662W. Faithorne Graving & Etching xvii. 21 It is at the first operation, that you are to cover all the faintest and sweetest places.
7. transf. (chiefly in phr.) Fond of or inclined for sweet things, esp. in sweet tooth (see C. 1 a).
1591Shakes. Two Gent. iii. i. 330 She hath a sweet mouth.
8. a. Dearly loved or prized, precious; beloved, dear.
a900Cynewulf Juliana 94 (Gr.) Ðu eart dohtor min seo dyreste & seo sweteste. c1275Passion our Lord 64 in O.E. Misc. 39 Vor vuele he dude god, Þer-vore hi at þen ende schedden his swete blod. a1300Cursor M. 14401 God luued þe Iuus lang beforn Þat his suet [Fairf. squete, Gött. suete, Trin. swete] sun was born. c1375Lay Folks Mass Bk. (MS. B.) 449 Swete ihesu make me saue. c1385Chaucer L.G.W. 1042 Dido, Whom schulde he louyn but this lady swete? c1386― Prol. Melibeus ⁋18 By goddes sweete pyne. c1400Destr. Troy 11381 All sweire þai, full swiftly, vpon swete haloues. c1425Seven Sag. (P.) 2080 Thou wylt by schent, by swyte Jhesus. a1533Ld. Berners Huon ii. 3, I..render grace..to god my swet creatore. 1579Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 74 He will be..readie to offer himselfe a Sacrifice for your sweete sake. 1583Earl of Northampton Def. agst. Prophecies Pp iv b, Policarpus, the sweete Martir of our Lorde. 1591Shakes. Two Gent. ii. vi. 30 Ayming at Siluia as a sweeter friend. 1591― 1 Hen. VI, iv. vi. 55 Thy Life to me is sweet. 1780F. Burney Diary (1842) I. 359 Ah, how different and how superior our sweet father.
b. In forms of address, freq. affectionate, but formerly also (now arch.) respectful or complimentary.
a1225Leg. Kath. 1536 Mi swete lif, se swoteliche he smecheð me..þet al me þuncheð..þet he sent me. c1330Spec. Gy de Warw. 555 Swete lord, forȝiue þu me. c1350Will. Palerne 4579 Swete sire,..Wharfore was al þis fare formest bi-gunne? 1593Shakes. 3 Hen. VI, ii. v. 137 Nay take me with thee, good sweet Exeter. 1605― Lear i. v. 50 O let me not be mad, not mad, sweet Heauen. 1617R. Fenton Treat. Ch. Rome 145 Sweet Jesus, had it not beene for these and these, we had neuer beene enabled to preach thy Gospell. 1693Humours Town 31 Ah sweet Mr. Jovial, you mistake me quite. 1782Cowper Parrot iii, ‘Sweet Poll!’ his doting mistress cries, ‘Sweet Poll!’ the mimic bird replies. 1807–8Syd. Smith Plymley's Lett. i. (ed. Cassell) 10 In the first place, my sweet Abraham, the Pope is not yet landed. 1833Tennyson Miller's Dau. iii, Give me one kiss: My own sweet Alice, we must die. 1849Faber Hymn, Sweet Saviour, bless us ere we go. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) I. 25 Be cheerful, sweet sir, and give your opinion.
c. absol. in affectionate address: Beloved, dear one; also in superl. (Cf. sweet n. 4.)
c1300K. Horn 465 (Harl. MS.) Help me þat ych were Ydobbed to be knyhte, Suete, bi al þi myhte. 13..Sir Beues (A.) 279 ‘Haue’, a seide, ‘ber þis sonde Me leue swet!’ c1386Chaucer Frankl. T. 250 Haue mercy sweete or ye wol do me deye. a1400–50Wars Alex. 2826 Here send I þe, my swete, salutis & ioy. 1588Shakes. L.L.L. v. ii. 373 Gentle sweete, Your wits makes wise things foolish. 1590― Mids. N. iii. ii. 247 Sweete, do not scorne her so. a1658Lovelace To Lucasta, going to the Wars i, Tell me not, sweet, I am unkind. 1814Shelley To M. W. Godwin v, We are not happy, sweet! 1818― Rosal. & Helen 73 Thou lead, my sweet, And I will follow. 1885‘Mrs. Alexander’ At Bay x, I would give my life to buy peace for you, sweetest.
d. Dear to the person himself; usually sarcastically, ‘pet’, ‘precious’: chiefly qualifying self or will. at one's own sweet will: just as one likes. Also in phrs. to bet one's sweet life, to take one's own sweet time, to go one's own sweet way, and varr.
1621Chas. I's Answ. to Petit. Comm. in Rushw. Hist. Coll. (1659) I. 49 Let us not so far wrong the Jesuites, as to rob them of their sweet Positions and practice in that very point. 1746Francis tr. Hor., Sat. ii. v. 61 Bid him go home, of his sweet self take care. a1774Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) II. 401 Nor yet need he be too secure against all damage to his own sweet person. 1802Wordsw. Sonn., Westm. Bridge 12 The river glideth at his own sweet will. 1846Tennyson Literary Squabbles iii, The petty fools of rhyme..Who..strain to make an inch of room For their sweet selves. 1862Whittier Amy Wentworth 151 Love has never known a law Beyond its own sweet will. 1873Symonds Grk. Poets xi. 344 The monk Planudes..remodelled the Greek Anthology of Cephalas at his own sweet will. 1889Kipling From Sea to Sea II. xxxii. 110 The younger ones [sc. Mormons]..will mix with the Gentile..and you bet your sweet life there's a holy influence working toward conversion in the kiss of an average Gentile. 1942Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §54/3 Not hurry..take one's (own) sweet time. 1945A. Kober Parm Me 85 You betcha sweet life I'll give you a buzz. 1946Civil & Mil. Gaz. (Lahore) 19 July 6/4 The station authorities..took their own sweet time in handing the driver the token for him to proceed on his journey. 1968M. Allingham Cargo of Eagles iv. 52, I let him pass, making sure he'd turn off, but not on your sweet life. He was right with me all the way. 1970‘D. Halliday’ Dolly & Cookie Bird vii. 105 You go your own sweet way, or so the evidence tells me. 1975D. Delman One Man's Murder ii. 49 So you're finally here... You took your own sweet time about it. 1976H. MacInnes Agent in Place xi. 120 Katie has complicated everything in her own sweet way. 1978‘G. Vaughan’ Belgrade Drop v. 33 If one single person's seen you get on this lorry..you can bet your sweet life they'll turn it inside out.
9. Having pleasant disposition and manners; amiable, kindly; gracious, benignant.
a. Of persons, etc.
c825Vesp. Ps. xxiv. 8 Dulcis et rectus Dominus, swoete & reht dryten. c1200Ormin 1258 Cullfre iss milde, & meoc, & swet. c1275Moral Ode 381 in O.E. Misc. 71 God is so swete & so muchel in his godnesse. 1297R. Glouc. (Rolls) 4088 Ou iesu þat þulke day worþ me suete & god. 1375Barbour Bruce i. 390 Quhen he wes blyth, he wes lufly, And meyk and sweyt in cumpany. 1382Wyclif Ps. xcix. [c.] 5 Preise ȝee his name, for swete is the Lord. 1553Respublica i. i. 108, I doubte not a shewete Ladye I shall fynde hir. c1610Women Saints 176 She was a verie courteous and sweete woman. 1693J. Edwards Author. O. & N. Test. 350 Very good-natur'd, sweet, and benign persons. 1799Wordsw. Lucy Gray ii, The sweetest thing that ever grew Beside a human door! 1859Tennyson Marr. Geraint 393 Seeing her [sc. Enid] so sweet and serviceable. 1905E. Glyn Viciss. Evangeline 157 At luncheon she was sweet to me at once.
ironical.1608R. Armin Nest Ninn. D ij, His report..making no bones of the sweet youth gaue his doings thus. 1644Prynne & Walker Fiennes's Trial 26 note, Was not this a sweet Governour, that professeth he had no more charge of his chiefest Fort, then of any house in the Towne?
b. Of personal actions or attributes.
a1300Cursor M. 20086 He þat nam of hir his flexs, Als his suet will al wess. c1330Spec. Guy de Warw. 998 Þo seide anon þe profete To þe widewe wordes swete. c1400Laud Troy Bk. 18657 God..graunte vs of his swete grace Ther-In to haue a swete place! 1473Rental Bk. Cupar-Angus (1879) I. 177 The ourman quhilk the Abbot assignis for kepyn of gud and suet nichtburhed. 1546J. Heywood Prov. (1867) 44 To see his sweete lookes, and here hir sweete wurdes. 1590Shakes. Com. Err. ii. ii. 112, I, I, Antipholus, looke strange and frowne, Some other Mistresse hath thy sweet aspects. 1647Herrick Noble Numb., Almes 1, Give, if thou canst, an Almes; if not, afford, Instead of that, a sweet and gentle word. a1661Fuller Worthies, Westmoreld. (1662) ii. 140 One of a sweet nature, comely presence, courteous carriage. 1705Stanhope Paraphr. II. 265 His Temper and Conversation is sweet and obliging. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. viii. II. 321 His person was pleasing, his temper singularly sweet. 1886‘Ouida’ House Party v. (1887) 92 How are your children? Do they still care for me? That is very sweet of them.
†c. Gentle, easy. Obs.
1607Markham Caval. (1617) ii. iv. 50 A smooth Cannon..is of all bytts the sweetest. Ibid. iv. viii. 39 You shall..carrie an euen and sweet hand vpon him. 1622T. Scott Belg. Pismire 37 To know the natures of all people, and to be able to carry a sweet hand, wherewith to manage them easily. 1655Fuller Ch. Hist. ix. vii. §24 That he was made a Cardinall of purpose to be sent then into England for the sweet managing of those Affairs.
d. to keep (someone) sweet: to keep (someone) well-disposed towards oneself, esp. by complaisance or bribery.
1939C. Day Lewis Child of Misfortune ii. vi. 241 It was necessary to keep the wealthier parishioners sweet. 1944‘N. Shute’ Pastoral viii. 202 Mine won't worry, but I'd like to keep them sweet. 1965N. Gulbenkian Pantaraxia xi. 228 Mr. Sheets..had what he described as ‘a wonderful idea’ to keep the Russians sweet politically. 1972G. Bromley In Absence of Body vi. 69 Joe Retford..helps to keep him sweet—wines him and dines him and all that. 1978N. Freeling Night Lords iii. 17 The cops were capable of leaking the most dreadful nonsense if one didn't take pains to keep them sweet.
10. to be sweet on (upon):
†a. To behave affectionately or gallantly towards, treat caressingly.
1694Echard Plautus Pref. a 7 This Stripling began to be sweet upon her, and waggish upon me too. a1700B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, To be Sweet upon, to coakse, wheedle, entice or allure. 1716Addison Freeholder No. 44 ⁋5 What still gave him greater offence, was a drunken bishop, who reeled from one side of the court to the other, and was very sweet upon an Indian queen. 1754Connoisseur No. 7 ⁋11, I would recommend it to all married people, but especially to the ladies, not to be so sweet upon their dears before company.
b. To have a particular fondness or affection for (one of the opposite sex); to be enamoured of or smitten with. Also transf.
1740tr. De Mouhy's Fort. Country-Maid (1741) I. 42 He..is very sweet upon her; but I shall watch him so narrowly, that he'll not find an Opportunity of speaking to her, but when I am by. 1844Dickens Mart. Chuz. xi, I think he is sweet upon your daughter. 1853‘C. Bede’ Verdant Green i. xii, The bar was presided over by a young lady, ‘on whom’ he said ‘he was desperately sweet’. 1862G. J. Whyte-Melville Inside Bar iii. (ed. 12) 256 If he should see any gentleman rather sweet upon the nag.
11. Austral. slang. Fine, in order, ready.
1898Bulletin (Sydney) 17 Dec. (Red Page), Sweet, roujig and not too stinkin' are good. 1939K. Tennant Foveaux 312, ‘I brassed a mug yesterday,’ he told her, ‘and everything's sweet again.’ He flashed a roll of notes. 1949L. Glassop Lucky Palmer 242 ‘Everything jake?’ he asked. ‘She's sweet,’ said Max. 1962S. Gore Down Golden Mile 120 Might as well be in it. We'll be sweet for getting back. 1975X. Herbert Poor Fellow my Country 353 Mossie came in..to say cheerfully, ‘She's sweet.’
B. adv. Sweetly; so as to be sweet (lit. or fig.).
1. = sweetly adv. 1. (Chiefly with vb. smell.)
c1250Gen. & Ex. 2443 Iosep dede hise lich..riche-like smeren, And spice-like swete smaken. 1362Langl. P. Pl. A. vii. 206 Þei schule soupe þe swettore whon þei han hit deseruet. a1425Cursor M. 1014 (Trin.) Floures þat ful swete smelles. 1592Shakes. Rom. & Jul. ii. ii. 44 (Qo. 1) Whats in a name? That which we call a Rose, By any other name would smell as sweet. c1640Shirley Cont. Ajax & Ulysses (1659) 128 Onely the actions of the just Smell sweet, and blossom in their dust. 1667J. Flavel Saint Indeed (1754) 21 When the salt of heavenly-mindedness is again cast into the spring, the streams will run clearer and sweeter. 1746Francis tr. Hor., Ep. i. xix. 6 Soon the tuneful Nine At Morning breath'd, and not too sweet, of Wine.
2. = sweetly adv. 2.
15..Christ's Kirk 39 in Bann. MS. (Hunter. Cl.) 283 He playit so schill and sang so sweit. 1592Shakes. Rom. & Jul. ii. ii. 166 How siluer sweet, sound Louers tongues by night. a1708T. Ward Eng. Ref. i. (1710) 96 She Psalms wou'd often sing in Meeter Like Hopkins, but a great deal Sweeter. 1851Tennyson E. Morris 113 Then low and sweet I whistled thrice. 1891Farrar Darkn. & Dawn xxii, ‘I think’, said Nero, savagely, ‘that swans sing sweetest before they die.’
3. a. = sweetly adv. 4.
a1300Cursor M. 15186 Þe lauerd..ansuard þam ful suete. 1338R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 275 Doun Sir Richard went, & spak to þam lufly, Many of þam he knewe, so fair spak & so suete. c1386Chaucer Miller's T. 119 He kist hire sweete. c1520Skelton Magnyf. iii. xxvii. 1802 So I wolde clepe her! so I wolde kys her swete! 1535Stewart Cron. Scotl. (Rolls) I. 517 Beseikand thame richt sweit to cum him to. 1592Shakes. Rom. & Jul. ii. iii. 32 Good morrow, Father. Fri. Benedicite. What early tongue so sweet saluteth me?
b. = sweetly adv. 4 d.
1846Holtzapffel Turning II. 689 The generality of other saw-files are single or float-cut, that kind of file tooth being considered to ‘cut sweeter’. 1862Pycroft Cricket Tutor 26 There is one way..to make the ball fly away like a shot, going so clean off the bat that you scarcely feel it; and this is the test of clean hitting—of the ball going off ‘sweet’.
4. = sweetly adv. 3.
1592Shakes. Rom. & Jul. ii. ii. 188 Sleepe dwell vpon thine eyes, peace in thy brest. Would I were sleepe and peace, so sweet to rest. 1596― Merch. V. v. i. 54 How sweet the moone-light sleepes vpon this banke. 1757Gray Bard 118 Her lyon-port, her awe-commanding face, Attemper'd sweet to virgin-grace. 1813Shelley Q. Mab vi. 73 The stars, Which on thy cradle beamed so brightly sweet.
C. Combinations and special collocations.
1. of the adj.a. With ns.: sweetback U.S. slang, a woman's lover, a ladies' man; a pimp; also sweetback man (cf. sweet man below); † sweet-bag, a small bag or sachet filled with a scented or aromatic substance, used for perfuming the air, clothes, etc.; occas. transf. of the honey-bag of a bee; † sweet-ball, a ball of scented or aromatic substance; sweet band orig. and chiefly U.S., a band which plays sweet music; sweet biscuit, a biscuit flavoured with sugar; † sweet-blanch, a dish made with the flesh of chickens and almond milk; sweet-bone(s dial., ‘a griskin of pork’ (Miss Baker Northampt. Gloss. 1854); sweet-cake, a kind of cake made with a specially large proportion of sugar; † sweet-cheese (see quot.); sweet dreams int., a farewell to someone going to bed; sweet Jesus int., used as an oath or exclamation (cf. Jesus 1 b); sweet life = dolce vita; hence sweet-lifer, one who leads the sweet life; † sweet-love, a term of affection for a beloved person; sweet mama U.S. slang (see quots.); sweet man U.S. slang = sweetback above; sweet-mart, a name for the pine-marten, as distinguished from the foulmart, foumart, or polecat (see mart n.1); sweet milk, fresh milk having its natural sweet flavour, as distinct from skimmed milk, or from ‘sour milk’, i.e. buttermilk; also attrib., as sweet-milk cheese, cheese made from unskimmed milk; sweetmouth v. trans. slang, to flatter; sweet music, light instrumental music of a popular or conventional character (cf. sweet a. 4 b); also fig., esp. in allusion to love-making; sweet nothings colloq., sentimental trivia, endearments; sweet oil, any oil of pleasant or mild taste, spec. olive oil; sweet papa U.S. slang (see quot. 1970); † sweet-powder, perfumed powder used as a cosmetic; sweet-spittle Path., an increased secretion of saliva having a sweetish taste; sweet spot, the point on a bat, club, racket, etc., at which it makes most effective contact with the ball; cf. meat n. 3 f; sweet-stuff, sweetmeats, sweets, confectionery; also attrib. and Comb.; now freq. in pl.; † also euphem., gin (obs.); sweet tooth (tooth n. 2 a), a taste or liking for sweet things; also transf. and fig.; sweet wine, wine having a sweet taste (as distinguished from dry wine); wine in the manufacture of which ‘sweets’ or syrup is added. See also sweetmeat, sweet singer, sweet water.
1929in P. Oliver Screening Blues (1968) vi. 206 Had a man, good old *sweetback. 1935A. J. Pollock Underworld Speaks 117/2 Sweet back, a pimp. 1950Blesh & Janis They all played Ragtime ii. 39 The dapper, foppish ‘macks’ or ‘sweet-back men’..got their gambling stakes from the girls. 1974Sweetback [see superfly n.].
1615in Foster Lett. E. India Co. (1899) III. 16 Some pillow *sweetbag or other like thing of the rockwork used lately in England. 1626Bacon Sylva §385 When Bodies are Moved or Stirred, though not Broken, they Smell more; As a Sweet-Bagge waved. 1648Herrick Hesper., The Bag of the Bee 1 About the sweet bag of a Bee, Two Cupids fell at odds. 1707Cibber Double Gallant 1, Her Sweet-bags, instead of..Musk and Amber, breathe nothing but..Hart's⁓horn, Rue and Assafœtida. 1821Scott Kenilw. xx, Hast thou no perfumes and sweet bags, or any handsome casting bottles, of the newest mode?
1617Janua Ling. 76 The Queene with her courtiers that weare feathers, smell of *sweete-balls. 1637Heywood Pleas. Dial. ii. Wks. 1874 VI. 130 This sweet-Ball, Take it to cheare your heart. 1650W. D. tr. Comenius Gate Lat. Unl. §587 Sweet-powders, sweet balls, and besprinklings out of sweet-glass bottles.
1935Vanity Fair (N.Y.) Nov. 71/2 Hot musicians look down on *sweet bands, which faithfully follow the composer's arrangements. 1938Sat. Even. Post 7 May 23/1 Art Hickman and the first wave of big sweet bands [were] calling the country's dance tunes. 1974Listener 24 Oct. 532/1 Would Albert McCarthy..say that Glenn Miller's was the best dance/swing/‘sweet’ band?
[1926–7Army & Navy Stores Catal. 6/2 Assorted biscuits. A choice selection of Plain, Sweet, and Fancy kinds.] 1929W. Faulkner Sartoris 168 Negroes lounged, skinning bananas or small florid cartons of *sweet biscuits. 1941Ration Craft 9 The present shortage of sweet biscuits is well known. 1977Lancashire Life Feb. 19/1 Sweet biscuits were unknown until about sixty years ago. Before that the only biscuits made were ship's biscuits.
c1430Two Cookery-bks. 112 *Sweteblanche.—Nym chikons or hennes, skald hem..& seth hem with good beofe.
1826H. More in W. Roberts Mem. (1835) IV. 304 The spare-rib, *sweet-bone, ears, and snout [of a pig]. 1969C. Drummond Odds on Death vii. 130 Sister has some Wiltshire sweetbones done under crisp suet crust.
1726Swift Gulliver ii. iii, I..sat down..to eat a piece of *sweet-cake for my breakfast. 1825T. Hook Sayings Ser. ii. Man of Many Fr. (Colburn) 112 The fruits, sugars, wines, creams, and sweet-cakes [after dinner]. a1881M. Clarke in Mem. (1884) 143 He..got a big piece of sweet-cake, and put it in the pocket of his little jumper.
1688Holme Armoury ii. 173/1 *Sweet-Cheese, Fleeting strained through a fine Cloth and Sugared.
1908Sears Roebuck & Co. Catal. 198/1 Tenor Solos..Good Bye, *Sweet Dreams, Good Bye. 1970New Yorker 28 Feb. 70/2 Good night, sleep tight, sweet dreams. 1981P. Niesewand Word of Gentleman xvii. 109 ‘I need some sleep.’.. ‘Sweet dreams, then.’
1932W. Faulkner Light in August viii. 182 ‘Come on out,’ the blonde woman said. ‘For *sweet Jesus,’ Max said. 1955F. O'Connor Wise Blood v. 95 Oh sweet Jesus, come on! 1973‘D. Jordan’ Nile Green xxxiii. 157 Her voice so still, so soft, and I believed her, sweet Jesus, I believed her.
1962Sunday Express 18 Feb. 13/5 Klaus was tired of being respectable and hungered for ‘the *sweet life’. 1974M. Cecil Heroines in Love ix. 218 The sweet life was turning sour on heroines in the late 1960s.
1967D. Skirrow I was following this Girl iii. 16 I've been tailing that toffee-nosed *sweet-lifer.
a1560T. Phaer æneid viii. Y iv, O husbande *sweetloue most disierd.
1950A. Lomax Mister Jelly Roll 19 Now these boys used to all have a *sweet mama..they was what I would call, maybe a fifth-class whore. 1970C. Major Dict. Afro-Amer. Slang 111 Sweet mama, black female lover.
1942Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §443/5 Beau,..*sweet man. Ibid. §508/3 Pimp..sweetman. 1952S. Selvon Brighter Sun ii. 21 Look how Ah take up meself and leave sweetman life in town. 1959[see saga boy s.v. saga1 3]. 1972J. Maryland in T. Kochman Rappin' & Stylin' Out 211 Damn, Rev., that's some real cruel shit, suggesting a sweet man [pimp] be iced.
1788W. Marshall Rural Econ. Yorks. (E.D.S.), *Sweet-mart, the marten. 1847Halliwell, Sweet-mart, the badger. Yorksh. 1905Athenæum 26 Aug. 262/1 Cumberland had its almost distinctive sports, such as foulmart hunting and sweetmart hunting.
c1420Liber Cocorum (1862) 17 Take *swete mylke and put in panne. 1787Burns Holy Fair vii, Wi sweet-milk cheese, in mony a whang. 1820Hogg Tales & Sk. (1836) II. Welldean Hall 224 That whining sweet-milk boy. 1844H. Stephens Bk. Farm II. 713 Hard-boiled picks of porridge, with a little sweet-milk in the dish. 1877Encycl. Brit. VII. 649/2 Edam..gives its name to a well-known description of ‘sweetmilk’ cheese. 1895Oracle Encycl. I. 556/1 Butter-Milk, the liquid which remains after the churning of cream or sweet-milk for the preparation of butter.
1948Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. ix. 81 Employment [by the Gullahs] of groups of words for..verbs..or other parts of speech (such as..to *sweet mouth ‘to flatter’). 1950Language XXVI. 330 Not recorded in the Atlas but commonly considered to be of Negro origin are such metaphors as sweet-mouth ‘to flatter’ and bad⁓mouth ‘to curse’. 1973J. Jones Touch of Danger xli. 238 He went on sweetmouthing me, with his slippery mean eyes.
1967Guardian 28 Sept. 4/5 If pop music should be a fad that passes he sees Radio One as becoming a ‘*sweet music’ station. 1970Ibid. 10 Mar. 1/3 A..choice between..pop music on Radio 1 and ‘sweet’ music on Radio 2. 1971R. Gadney Somewhere in England xxi. 180 A small black girl..offered him ‘some sweet music’. 1977J. Wainwright Day of Peppercorn Kill 99 [They] should be making sweet music, every night of the week. 1981H. R. F. Keating Go West, Inspector Ghote iii. 29 Rock music, country music, sweet music, pop music—all or any of these..at the touch of a button.
1900Fazl-i-Husain Diary 20 May in A. Husain Fazl-i-Husain (1946) ii. 35 The *sweet nothings so often talked of in the romantic descriptions. 1934C. Lambert Music Ho! iii. 212 The blues have a certain austerity that places them far above the sweet nothings of George Gershwin. 1973M. Amis Rachel Papers 119 Half the guests, including DeForest (after a minute of sweet-nuthins with Rachel), had wisely got the hell out as soon as dinner was over.
a1585in Eng. Hist. Rev. (1914) XXIX. 519 All our wolle oyles and *swete oyles. 1757Bromfeild Eng. Nightshades 74 The red oil, produced by distillation from bitter almonds, after the sweet oil had been expressed. 1776Pigou in Gentl. Mag. (1792) Jan. 14/2 We found relief by rubbing the parts with sweet oil. 1857Miller Elem. Chem., Org. iii. 158 If this liquid [sc. sulphethylic acid] be boiled, sweet oil of wine mingled with sulphurous acid passes over. 1867Bloxam Chem. 580 Salad oil, or sweet oil.., is obtained by crushing olives.
c1923in W. C. Handy's Coll. Blues (? 1925) 28 Ashes in my *sweet pa-pa's bed So that he can't slip out. 1941W. C. Handy Father of Blues x. 141 The sweet papa who happened to be shining around the absentee prisoner's gal at the moment. 1970C. Major Dict. Afro-Amer. Slang 111 Sweet papa, a sugar-daddy and sweet man.
1573–4in Feuillerat Revels Q. Eliz. (1908) 208 *Sweete powder made of Musk & Amber. 1709Steele Tatler No. 52 ⁋1 The Expence of Sweet Powder and Jessamine are considerably abated. 1710C. Shadwell Fair Quaker Deal ii. 25 He's for turning the Gun powder into Sweet-Powder, and the Iron Balls into Wash-Balls.
1820Good Nosology 13 Apocenosis, ptyalismus, mellitus..*Sweet-spittle.
1976National Observer (U.S.) 1 May 10/4 The *sweet spot—the precise point of contact on the racket face where all the force of a swing goes into the ball without jarring the arm—was considerably farther from the center than anyone had ever suspected. 1976Golf International 13–29 May 21/1 Because we use investment casting, the head weight is distributed over a wider area, increasing the sweet spot. We call this Perimeter Weighting. 1980Esquire Mar. 78 Tennis players, of course, are accustomed to a long racquet, but they're also accustomed to a nice fluffy projectile and the luxury of a forgiving ‘sweet spot’.
1835Dickens in Even. Chron. 7 Feb. 3/3 Wretched houses with..‘*sweet-stuff’ manufacturers in the cellars. 1851Mayhew Lond. Labour I. 204/1 The sweet-stuff maker (I never heard them called confectioners). 1862Sala Accepted Addr. 96 The back parlour of the little sweetstuff shop. 1908Chambers's Jrnl. Feb. 204/1 The scent for sweetstuffs is very strongly developed in the Customs officer, and he has found sugar in such an unlikely article as blacking. 1911J. H. Hart Cacao ii. 18 The bean may be used in the same way as almonds, and boiled to sweetstuff with sugar. 1963Times 18 May 9/4 We teach our students the harmful effects of the consumption of sweetstuffs between meals.
1390Gower Conf. I. 14 Delicacie his *swete toth Hath fostred. 1580Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 308, I am glad that my Adonis hath a sweete tooth in his head. 1625B. Jonson Staple of N. ii. Interm., I haue a sweet tooth yet. 1710Addison Tatler No. 255 ⁋2 A liquorish Palate, or a sweet Tooth (as they call it). 1899J. London Let. 29 July (1966) 45 If you're a sweet tooth you will not receive accommodation here except in the fruit line and the candy stores. 1904P. Fountain Gt. North-West x. 96 Americans have the sweet-tooth highly developed. 1946Dylan Thomas Deaths & Entrances 14 Till the sweet tooth of my love bit dry. 1960Times 5 July 16/5 A symphony for sweet-tooths.
c1386Chaucer Wife's Prol. 459 When I had dronke a draughte of *swete wyn. 1430–1Rolls of Parlt. IV. 369/1 Every Tonne of swete Wyn..commyng in to this saide Roialme, be weye of Merchandise. 1542Boorde Dyetary xxiv. (1870) 296 Swete wynes be good for them the whiche be in consumpcion. 1797Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) XII. 202/1 The white of an egg, milk, and sweet-wine. 1857Miller Elem. Chem., Org. ii. 118 The liquid..acquires a ropy consistence as is sometimes observed when sweet wines are kept for a time.
b. spec. in distinctive names of sweet-scented or sweet-flavoured species or varieties of plants, fruits, etc., as sweet almond, † sweet ballocks, sweet basil, sweet bent, sweet birch, sweet calabash, sweet calamus, sweet cassava, sweet cicely, sweet clover, sweet coltsfoot, sweet gum (-tree), sweet horse-mint, sweet locust, sweet marjoram, sweet maudlin, sweet navew, sweet oleander, sweet orange, sweet pepper-bush, sweet pine-sap, sweet pishamin, sweet sorghum, † sweet stones, sweet sultan tea, sweet trefoil, sweet violet, sweet virgin's bower, sweet woodruff (see also these words); sweet Alice, sweet alyssum, Lobularia maritima (cf. alyssum 2) or Arabis alpina, another small cruciferous herb with white flowers; sweet-apple, a name for the sweet-sop, also called sugar-apple; sweet bay, (a) the bay laurel, Laurus nobilis; (b) in N. America applied to Magnolia virginiana, also called white bay; also attrib. and in comb., as sweet bay laurel = (a); sweet-bay (-leaved) willow, Salix pentandra; sweet-bough U.S., an early variety of apple or the tree that bears it; sweet broom, (a) ? some species of broom (Cytisus or Genista); (b) a name for Scoparia dulcis (N.O. Scrophulariaceæ), also called sweet broom-weed; sweet buckeye, a yellow-flowered horse chestnut, Aesculus octandra, found in eastern North America; sweet cane: = sweet flag; sweet chestnut, the common or Spanish chestnut, Castanea sativa, as distinguished from the bitter inedible horse-chestnut; also, the fruit or timber of this tree; sweet corn U.S., a sweet-flavoured variety of maize; sweet fern, a name for two plants with fern-like leaves and aromatic scent: (a) locally in England, the sweet cicely, Myrrhis odorata (N.O. Umbelliferæ); (b) in N. America, the shrub Comptonia asplenifolia (N.O. Myricaceæ); sweet flag, a rush-like plant, Acorus Calamus (N.O. Araceæ or Orontiaceæ), widely distributed in the North Temperate zone, growing in water and wet places, with an aromatic odour, and having a thick creeping rootstock of a pungent aromatic flavour; sweet gum(-tree) = liquid-ambar 2; sweet melon = spanspek; sweet milk-vetch, Astragalus glycyphyllus, with sweet-flavoured leaves; sweet olive, an evergreen shrub, Osmanthus fragrans, of the family Oleaceæ, native to eastern Asia and bearing clusters of small fragrant white flowers; sweet pepper, (a) = pepper n. 2 b; (b) = sweet pepper-bush; sweet plum, (a) see quot. 1796; (b) the Queensland plum, Owenia cerasifera; (c) a species of hog-plum, Spondias pleigyna; sweet potato, the edible tuber of a perennial vine, Ipomœa batatas, native to South America and widely cultivated elsewhere; sweet scabious, Scabiosa atropurpurea; also applied to the N. American Erigeron annuus (N.O. Compositæ); also E. philadelphicus; sweet sedge = sweet flag; sweet vernal grass, Anthoxanthum odoratum (see vernal 3 c); sweet willow, (a) = sweet-bay willow (see willow); (b) = sweet-gale. See also sweet-brier, sweet-gale, sweet-pea, sweet-william, etc.
1886Britten & Holland Dict. Eng. Plant-Names 459 *Sweet Alice. Arabis alpina, L... A corruption of Sweet Alison, which name belongs more properly to Alyssum maritimum, L. 1927V. Woolf To Lighthouse i. iv. 38 She was picking Sweet Alice on the bank.
1719Quincy Compl. Disp. 114 *Sweet Almonds.—These are of a soft, sweet, grateful Taste.
1760J. Lee Introd. Bot. App. 305 *Apple, Sweet, Annona.
1597Gerarde Herbal i. cii. 169 Testiculus odoratus... Ladies traces:..of some *sweete Ballocks, sweete Cods, sweete Cullions.
1647Hexham i. (Herbs), *Sweete Basill, Wilde Christus oogen, ofte Gennettekens. 1820Keats Isabella lii, She..o'er it set Sweet Basil, which her tears kept ever wet.
1716Petiveriana i. 246 Barbadoes *Sweet-Bay. 1766J. Bartram Jrnl. 9 Jan. in Stork Acc. E. Florida 29 On it grew great magnolia, sweet-bay, live-oak, palms. 1850,1903Sweet bay [see laurel magnolia s.v. laurel n.1 6]. 1858Baird Cycl. Nat. Sci. s.v. Lauraceæ, The common, or sweetbay laurel, Laurus nobilis. 1938M. K. Rawlings Yearling xviii. 217 The sweet bay was still in bloom, filling the sink-hole with its fragrance. 1958G. A. Petrides Field Guide to Trees & Shrubs 303 Sweet⁓bay Magnolia... A large shrub or small tree with thick, rather leathery, elliptic leaves that are evergreen.
1857Miss Pratt Flower. Pl. V. 78 S[alix] pentandra (*Sweet Bay-leaved Willow).
1796Nemnich Polygl.-Lex., *Sweet birch, Betula nigra. 1861Bentley Man. Bot. 652 The bark of B[etula] lenta, known in the United States as Sweet Birch or Cherry Birch.
1850Rep. Comm. Patents: Agric. 1849 (U.S.) 281 Of summer apples, the best..are the early-harvest and early *sweet⁓bough. 1906Harper's Mag. Apr. 667 He halted under the sweet-bough and gave one branch a shake.
1736Bailey Househ. Dict. 554 *Sweet-Broom. 1884Miller Plant-n., Scoparia dulcis, Sweet Broom.
1890Cent. Dict. s.v. Scoparia, S[coparia] dulcis is used as a stomachic in the West Indies, and is called *sweet broomweed and licorice-weed.
1815D. Drake Cincinnati ii. 77 *Sweet buckeye. 1943R. Peattie Great Smokies 155 The sweet buckeye or horse chestnut is found here up to 125 feet in height. 1969T. H. Everett Living Trees of World xxii. 224/2 The largest of the Americans is the sweet or yellow buckeye.
1796Nemnich Polygl.-Lex., *Sweet calabash, Passiflora laurifolia.
1611*Sweet cane [see cane n.1 2]. 1718J. Quincy Compleat Eng. Dispensatory ii. i. 85 Sweet-Cane..is a spicy bitterish Root. 1822J. Campbell Trav. S. Afr.: 2nd Journey I. xx. 226 A constant succession of fresh visitants arrived, several of whom brought us presents of sweet cane.
1818Scott Hrt. Midl. xxxii, Large *sweet-chesnut trees and beeches. 1838J. C. Loudon Arboretum & Fruticetum Britannicum III. 1983 The term Sweet Chestnut is applied with reference to the fruit. 1909Elwes & Henry Trees Gt. Brit. & Ireland IV. 844 The Sweet or Spanish Chestnut..is..one of the largest trees in England. 1956Handbk. Hardwoods (Forest Prod. Res. Lab.) 72 Sweet chestnut bears a close resemblance to oak but is more easily worked. 1977New Yorker 4 July 22/2 If he could, he would supplement local bounty only with sweet chestnuts and Korean pears. 1981G. Keynes Gates of Memory xxix. 351 Nearer to us were glorious stands of trees,..sweet chestnuts hundreds of years old with twisted trunks.
1874A. Gray Man. Bot. (ed. 5) 128 Melilotus,..Melilot. *Sweet Clover.
Ibid. 227 Nardosmia, *Sweet Coltsfoot.
1646E. Hopkins Let. 20 Mar. in Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc. (1863) 4th Ser. VI. 334 Wequash Cooks brother tooke from him..2 bushell of *sweet corne. 1810T. Jefferson Garden Bk. (1944) 424 [Sowed]..Sweet or shriveled corn in the N.W. corner. a1817T. Dwight Trav. New Eng., etc. (1821) I. 49 At New-Haven the sweet corn may be had in full perfection for the table by successive plantings from the middle of July to the middle of November. 1909‘O. Henry’ Roads of Destiny 364 Cigarettes rolled with sweet corn husk were as honey to Buck's palate. 1917Will & Hyde Corn among Indians 118 The Upper Missouri tribes prepared this ‘sweet corn’ for winter use in two ways: by boiling it in kettles, and by roasting it in fires. 1974A. Price Other Paths to Glory ii. iii. 139 To the north..of the house there had been..a single tiny field of sweet corn.
1787–9Withering Brit. Plants (1796) II. 306 Scandix odorata..Sweet Cicely..*Sweet Fern. 1849Balfour Man. Bot. §1037 The leaves of Comptonia asplenifolia, Sweet Fern, are found..to contain peculiar glands.
[1640J. Parkinson Theatrum Botanicum xlviii. 139 This sweet smelling Flagge hath many flaggy long and narrow fresh greene leaves. 1728R. Bradley Dictionarium Botanicum I. s.v., Calamus aromaticus Off. is also call'd Acorus, and in English, The sweet smelling Flag.] 1790L. Castiglioni Viaggio regli Stati Uniti II. 185 Acorus verus..*Sweet-flagg. 1796Withering Brit. Plants (ed. 3) III. 917 Sweet Flag. 1858Simmonds Dict. Trade, Sweet-flag..is..employed to scent aromatic baths, perfumery, and hair-powder.
1700Baltimore Rent Rolls in Maryland Hist. Mag. (1924) XIX. 367, 127 acre Sur[veyed]..begun at a bounded *sweet gum. 1709J. Lawson New Voy. Carolina 95 The sweet Gum-Tree, so call'd, because of the fragrant Gum it yields in the Spring-time, upon Incision of the Bark, or Wood. 1717Petiveriana iii. 195 Sweet-gum. Because in the Spring it yeilds a fragrant Gum, upon cutting its Bark or Wood, of great use in Tetters, Scurfs, Inflammations, etc. 1856A. Gray Man. Bot. (1860) 148 Liquidambar, Sweet-Gum Tree. 1867A. J. Wilson Vashti iii, The trunk of a decayed and fallen sweet-gum. 1884[see copalm]. 1981A. Mitchell Gardener's Bk. Trees 101/1 For summer foliage and autumn colours the Sweet gum has few equals.
1819*Sweet locust [see honey-locust s.v. honey n. (a.) 7 b]. 1863Chambers's Encycl., Honey Locust Tree..also known as the Sweet Locust and Black Locust.
1565Cooper Thesaurus, Amaracus..*sweete [1545–52 Elyot, soote] maioram. 1601Shakes. All's Well iv. v. 17 Indeed sir she was the sweete Margerom of the sallet, or rather the hearbe of grace.
1883J. Roth Man. S. Afr. Gardening 78 The Water Melons must not be ripped or cut, as required by *Sweet Melons. 1970Rand Daily Mail 28 Feb. 7/4 South Africans also speak of..‘sweet melons’.
1860Chambers's Encycl. I. 504/1 The *Sweet Milk-vetch, or Wild Liquorice.
1886Yule & Burnell Hobson Jobson, *Sweet Oleander,..the common oleander, Nerium odorum.
[1789W. Aiton Hortus Kewensis I. 14 Sweet-scented Olive. Nat[ive] of Cochinchina, China, and Japan. ]1861S. K. Holmes Jrnl. 15 Oct. in Brokenburn (1955) 61 Mrs. Carson gave Mamma plants of *sweet olive..and purple magnolia. 1899[see citronelle]. 1958S. A. Grau Hard Blue Sky iii. 122 There was..the winey odor of the sweet olive.
1785J. Woodforde Diary 19 Apr. (1926) II. 185 To a Dozen of *sweet Oranges to carry home pd 0. 1. 6. 1796Nemnich Polygl.-Lex., Sweet orange, Citrus aurantium sinense. 1861Bentley Man. Bot. 495 The rind of the Sweet Orange is an aromatic stimulant and tonic.
1923*Sweet pepper [see pepper n. 2 b]. 1944E. A. Holton Yankees were like This 84 The perfume of bush honeysuckle and sweet pepper from the swamps. 1969Oxf. Bk. Food Plants 128/1 The larger-fruited kinds [of Capsicum annuum] are quite mild in taste and are known as ‘sweet peppers’. 1972Country Life 16 Mar. 625/3 Every garden that can provide lime-free soil ought to contain a bush of the Sweet Pepper, Clethra alnifolia.
1814O. O. Rich Synopsis Genera N. Amer. Plants 50 Clethra. *Sweet Pepper-Bush. 1846–50A. Wood Class-bk. Bot. 373 Clethra alnifolia. Sweet-pepper Bush. 1901C. T. Mohr Plant Life Alabama 652 Sweet Pepper Bush... Common in the coast plain on swampy banks of pine-barren streams. 1976Hortus Third (L. H. Bailey Hortorium) 286/2 Sweet pepperbush... Summer to autumn.
1874A. Gray Man. Bot. (ed. 5) 304 Schweinitzia, *Sweet Pine⁓sap.
1829Loudon Encycl. Plants 1286 Carpodinus, *Sweet Pishamin..produces green flowers.
1796Nemnich Polygl.-Lex., *Sweet plumb, Prunus americana. 1874Treas. Bot. Suppl. 1324/2 Owenia cerasifera is called the Sweet Plum or Rancooran. 1889J. H. Maiden Usef. Pl. Australia 599 Spondias pleiogyna,..‘Sweet Plum’, or ‘Burdekin Plum’.
1750J. Birket Some Cursory Remarks 9 They have..abundance of..the *Sweet Potatoe. 1775, etc. [see potato 3 a]. 1832[see batata]. 1972Y. Lovelock Veg. Bk. i. 233 Sweet potato is now grown throughout the tropics. 1976M. H. Kingston Woman Warrior (1977) 79 My mother liked to look at the ducks and plan how she would dig a pond for them near the sweet potato field.
1789W. Aiton Hortus Kewensis I. 137 *Sweet Scabious. Nat[ive]. 1796Nemnich Polygl.-Lex., Sweet scabious, Scabiosa atropurpurea. 1828C. Rafinesque Med. Flora I. 162 Erigeron Philadelphicum... Vulgar Names—Skevish, Scabish, Sweet Scabious [etc.]. 1856A. Gray Man. Bot. (1860) 198 Erigeron annuum..(Daisy Fleabane. Sweet Scabious). 1937Range Plant Handbk. (U.S. Dept. Agric. Forest Service) W67 Annual wild-daisy (E. annuus) and Philadelphia wild-daisy, misnamed sweet scabious..are other wild-daisies with similar properties. 1976Hortus Third (L. H. Bailey Hortorium) 1014/1 Sweet scabious..naturalized in California.
1857Miss Pratt Flower. Pl. V. 323 Acorus (*Sweet Sedge).
1697Ray in Phil. Trans. XIX. 635 They tasted somewhat like the Root of Seleri, or *Sweet Smallage.
1597Gerarde Herbal i. cii. 167 The first kind of *Sweete stones is a small, base, and lowe plant.
1706J. Gardiner tr. Rapin's Gardens i. 34 *Sweet-Sultans nam'd from the Byzantine King.
1859Mayne Expos. Lex., *Sweet Trefoil, common name for the Trifolium cæruleum.
1845Lindley Sch. Bot. 143 Anthoxanthum odoratum (*Sweet Vernal Grass).
1597Gerarde Herbal iii. lxviii. 1228 Myrtus Brabantica, siue Elæagnus Cordi, Gaule, *sweete Willow, or Dutch Myrtle tree. 1731Sweet willow [see willow n. 2 a]. 1776W. Withering Bot. Arrangement Veg. Gt. Brit. 610 Gale..Sweet Willow. Dutch Myrtle. In marshy barren ground. 1839J. J. Audubon Ornith. Biogr. V. 288 A heavy growth of cotton-wood, ash, and sweet-willow. 1855A. Pratt Flowering Plants & Ferns Gt. Brit. V. 56 Sweet Gale, or Dutch Myrtle..is called Sweet Willow.
1800J. E. Smith Eng. Bot. XI. 755 Asperula odorata. *Sweet Woodruff or Woodroof.
c. Parasynthetic, as sweet-beamed, sweet-blooded, sweet-breathed |-brɛθt|, † sweet-conditioned, sweet-dispositioned, sweet-eyed, sweet-faced, sweet-flavoured, sweet-fleshed, sweet-flowered, sweet-leafed, sweet-mannered, sweet-minded, sweet-natured, † sweet-numbered (number n. 18 b), sweet-savoured (cf. ME. swote sauoured), sweet-shaped, † sweet-smelled (= sweet-smelling), sweet-souled, † sweet-sounded (= sweet-sounding), sweet-tasted, sweet-tempered, sweet-toned, sweet-tuned, sweet-voiced adjs.; see also sweet-breasted, etc. in 3 below. Also sweet-scented.
1730–46Thomson Autumn 29 Attempered suns arise, *Sweet-beamed.
1859Geo. Eliot A. Bede i. v, Those large-hearted, *sweet-blooded natures that never know a narrow or a grudging thought.
1617Drummond of Hawthornden Forth Feasting 34 *Sweet-breath'd Zephyres. 1623Webster Devil's Law-Case i. ii, O sweet-breath'd monkeys, how they grow together! 1814Wordsw. Excurs. vii. 731 The sweet-breathed violet of the shade. 1881O. Wilde Poems 209 Most bounteous Spring! That cans't give increase to the sweet-breath'd kine. 1949M. Mead Male & Female xiv. 283 Life is a race that boys and girls must run clear-eyed, sweet-breathed, well bathed.
1624Massinger Renegado v. ii, Our *sweet-conditioned princess, fair Donusa.
1646W. Bridge Saints Hiding-Place (1647) 30 We have a meek and *sweet disposition'd Saviour.
1812W. Tennant Anster F. i. xxxi, *Sweet-eyed lass.
1590Shakes. Mids. N. i. ii. 88 Piramus is a *sweet-fac'd man. 1612Beaum. & Fl. Coxcomb iii. i, Good sweet fact serving-man! 1885‘H. Conway’ Slings & Arrows 168 A pale, sweet-faced woman,..who was dressed as a Sister of Charity. 1981M. Warner Joan of Arc xiii. 267 The young Joan of Arc, the sweet-faced child of hagiography.
1952A. G. L. Hellyer Sanders' Encycl. Gardening (ed. 22) 9 [Actinidia] purpurea, *sweet-flavoured purple berries.
1923D. H. Lawrence Birds, Beasts & Flowers 41 A rock-living, *sweet-fleshed sea-anemone.
1611Cotgr., Sequinant, the *sweet-flowred Rush tearmed Squinant.
a1586Sidney Arcadia ii. (1912) 225 Whom yet with a *sweete-graced bitternes they blamed.
1749Shenstone Ode after Sickness 30 The *sweet-leaft eglantine.
1887G. M. Hopkins Let. 25 Dec. (1956) 183 The youngest boy Leo is a remarkably winning *sweetmannered young fellow.
a1586Sidney Arcadia ii. (1912) 169 The *sweete minded Philoclea.
1650Staplyton Strada's Low C. Wars vi. 23 A plaine and *sweete-natured man. 1876Geo. Eliot Dan. Der. lviii, The sweet-natured, strong Rex.
1598Sylvester Du Bartas ii. ii. ii. Babylon 590 *Sweet-numbred Homer.
1530Palsgr. 326/2 *Swete savoured, aromaticq. 1590Shakes. Com. Err. ii. ii. 119 That neuer words were musicke to thine eare,..That neuer meat sweet-sauour'd in thy taste.
1632Rutherford Lett. (1862) I. 82 The *sweetest-smelled flowers.
1747Shenstone Lett. xlv. (1777) 120 That *sweet-souled bard Mr. James Thomson. 1790Wolcot (P. Pindar) Ep. to Sylv. Urban Wks. 1812 II. 262 Each sweet-soul'd Stanza. 1932D. H. Lawrence Etruscan Places i. 12 Those pure, clean-living, sweet-souled Romans, who smashed nation after nation.
1659O. Walker Oratory 25 Words, smooth and *sweeter-sounded..are to be used.
1807T. Thomson Chem. (ed. 3) II. 74 A *sweet-tasted salt, called muriate of glucina. 1913J. Masefield Daffodil Fields 31 Cropping sweet-tasted pasture.
1632Massinger & Field Fatal Dowry iii. i, *Sweet-tempered lord, adieu! 1749Fielding Tom Jones xi. ii, She's a sweet-tempered, good-humoured lady. 1845Dickens Chimes iv. 145 The sweetest-looking, sweetest-tempered girl, eyes ever saw.
1870Bryant Iliad I. ix. 274 A *sweet-toned harp.
1598Sylvester Du Bartas ii. i. i. Eden 129 The Nightingal's *sweet-tuned voice. 1760–72H. Brooke Fool of Qual. (1809) IV. 119 A well-known and sweet-tuned voice.
1807–8Wordsw. Somnambulist 17 A Bird of plumage bright, *Sweet-voiced. 1919J. Masefield Reynard the Fox 11 John Pym..Gross and blunt-headed like a shrike. Yet sweet-voiced as a piping flute.
d. with ns., forming adjs. having the sense of parasynthetic combinations, as sweet-breath (= sweet-breathed); sweet-lip, any of several marine fishes with prominent mouths, esp. an Australian food fish, Lethrinus chrysostomus, or a brightly coloured tropical fish of the family Plectorhynchidæ; also † sweet-lips, a delicate eater, epicure; sweet-throat, sweet-voiced.
1648Herrick Hesper., Meddow Verse 8 While *sweet-breath Nimphs, attend on you this Day.
1934T. Wood Cobbers xvii. 223 *Sweet-lip, and barracouta, a slim silver sword. 1951T. C. Roughley Fish & Fisheries Austral. (rev. ed.) 75 The best-known of the emperor breams is the sweet-lip or red-mouthed emperor. 1974J. M. Thomson Fish of Ocean & Shore xiii. 142 The sweetlip emperor, or simply sweetlip..is highly regarded for the table.
1580Hollyband Treas. Fr. Tong, Vn friand, friolet, a licorous felow, a *sweete lips.
1870Morris Earthly Par. iv. 74 The bright-billed *sweet-throat bird.
2. Combinations of the adv. (or in which sweet is in adverbial relation to the second element).
a. with pples. and ppl. adjs., as sweet-bleeding, sweet-breathing, sweet-complaining, sweet-flowering, sweet-flowing, sweet-looking, sweet-murmuring, † sweet savouring, sweet-set, sweet-singing, sweet-smiling, sweet-sounding, sweet-spun, sweet-suggesting, sweet-touched, sweet-whispered: see also sweet-recording, sweet-spoken in 3 below, and sweet-smelling.
b. with adjs. (chiefly poetic, denoting a combination of sweetness with some other quality), as sweet-bitter, sweet-bright, sweet-chaste, sweet-familiar, sweet-sad.
Combs. of this class were much favoured by Sylvester, who has sweet-charming , sweet-piercing, sweet-rapting, sweet-sacred, sweet-sweating, sweet-warbling.
1591Sylvester Du Bartas i. vi. 133 He doth discharge On other's shoulders his *sweet-bitter charge. 1690Dryden Amphitryon iii. i, The stern goddess of sweet-bitter cares.
1590Spenser F.Q. i. i. 9 The Mirrhe *sweete bleeding in the bitter wound.
a1586Sidney Arcadia ii. (1912) 176 It might seeme that Love..was there to refreshe himselfe betweene their *sweete-breathing lippes. 1819Shelley Cyclops 524 Pied flowers, sweet-breathing. 1856Vaughan Mystics (1860) I. 23 The sweet-breathing air.
1598Barnfield Remembr. Eng. Poets ii, Daniell, praised for thy *sweet-chast Verse.
1591Shakes. Two Gent. iii. ii. 86 The nights dead silence Will well become such *sweet complaining grieuance.
1865G. M. Hopkins Poems (1967) 21 New-dated from the terms that reappear, More *sweet-familiar grows my love to thee.
1596Edw. III, iii. ii. 47 *Sweete flowring peace.
1721Ramsay Petition to Whin-bush Club i, *Sweet-flowing Clyde. 1784Cowper Poplar Field 12 The scene where his melody charm'd me before, Resounds with his sweet-flowing ditty no more.
1845Dickens Chimes iv. 145 The *sweetest-looking, sweetest-tempered girl, eyes ever saw.
1742Blair Grave 100 In grateful Errors thro' the Under-wood *Sweet-murmuring.
1946A. Hutchings in A. L. Bacharach Brit. Music xvi. 200 Parts were Arthur Blissy, and none the worse for that; parts were *sweet-sad and Englysshe. 1962R. Prawer Jhabvala Get Ready for Battle ii. 97 There was music blaring out of various radios, sweet-sad music played at top volume.
1382Wyclif Ezek. xxvii. 19 *Swete sauerynge spice. 1596Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. I. 44 Sueit sairing flouris.
1592Arden of Feversham iii. v. 146 How you women can insinuate, And cleare a trespasse with your *sweete set tongue!
1593Marlowe Hero & Leander ii. 162 *Sweet singing Mere⁓maids, sported with their loues. 1740Mrs. Delany in Life & Corr. (1861) II. 131 Do you ever hear from sweet-singing Birch?
1625Milton Death Fair Infant 53 Wert thou that *sweet smiling Youth?
1595Locrine i. i. 239 Plaidst thou as sweet, on the *sweet sounding lute. 1743Francis tr. Hor., Odes iv. iii. 17 Goddess of the sweet-sounding lute.
1910W. de la Mare Three Mulla-Mulgars v. 71 When you hear my sweet-sounding..song.
1649G. Daniel Trinarch., Hen. V, ccclxxx, Nor lov'd Court-Sweets, nor *Sweet Spun Dialects.
1591Shakes. Two Gent. ii. vi. 7 O *sweet-suggesting Loue.
a1593Marlowe Ovid's Elegies iii. xi. 40 *Sweet toucht harpe that to moue stones was able.
1843James Forest Days (1847) 209 Many a *sweet-whispered word.
3. Miscellaneous Special Combinations: sweet-and-twenty, a Shakespearian phrase (see twenty A. 2), misunderstood by later writers to mean ‘a sweet girl of twenty years old’; † sweet-breasted a. [see breast n. 6], sweet-voiced; sweet-lipped, -lipt a., having sweet lips; usually, speaking sweetly; sweet-mouthed |-maʊðd| a., † (a) fond of sweet-flavoured things, dainty; (b) speaking sweetly (usually ironically); † sweet-recording a. [record v. 3], singing sweetly, tuneful; sweet-seasoned a., ‘seasoned’ or imbued with sweetness; sweet seventeen: see seventeen a. 2; now more usually, sweet sixteen (cf. sixteen n. 4); sweet-spoken a., speaking sweetly, using pleasant language (cf. plain-spoken); sweet-throated, sweet-voiced; sweet-tongued |-tʌŋd| a., having a sweet tongue or utterance, sweet-voiced, sweet-spoken; sweet-toothed |-tuːθt| a., having a ‘sweet tooth’, fond of sweet things or delicacies.
1601Shakes. Twel. N. ii. iii. 52 Then come kisse me *sweet and twentie. 1887J. Ashby-Sterry Lazy Minstrel (1892) 76, I love the eyes of peerless blue, And nameless grace of Sweet-and-Twenty! 1901G. K. Menzies Prov. Sk. (1902) 48 When one's special sweet-and-twenty Is enshrined in one's Canader on the Cher.
a1623Fletcher Love's Cure iii. i, A proper man,..*Sweet breasted, as the Nightingale, or Thrush.
a1644Quarles Sol. Recant. Sol. viii. 81 And Candle-light devotion, trim'd and straw'd With *sweet-lipt Roses. 1783W. Gordon Livy iii. lxviii, The embellishments of a sweet-lipped tribune. a1845Hood Lamia v. 1 Nay, sweet-lipped Silence, 'Tis now your turn to talk.
1542Udall Erasm. Apoph. 45 For that he was so *sweete mouthed, and drouned in the voluptuousnesse of high fare. 1611Cotgr., Leschard, a lickorous, or sweet-mouthed slapsawce. 1623Middleton & Rowley Sp. Gipsy ii. (1653) D 1, This cherry-lip'd, sweet-mouth'd villaine. a1722Lisle Husb. (1757) 409 Nuts, being so sweet, would make them so sweet-mouthed, that [etc.]. 1886J. F. Maurice in Lett. fr. Donegal Pref. p. vi, The class which Mr. Parnell never speaks of except as the ‘felon’ landlords, just as his sweet-mouthed friends speak of The Times.
1598–9E. Forde Parismus i. (1661) 10 They heard the sound of most *sweet recording musick which made Dionysius wonder. 1601Chester Love's Mart., etc. (1878) 123 The sweete recording Swanne Apolloes ioy.
c1600Shakes. Sonn. lxxv, So are you to my thoughts as food to life, Or as *sweet season'd shewers are to the ground. 1632Lithgow Trav. i. 9 A bitter pleasant tast, of a sweete-seasoned sowre.
1826Blackw. Edin. Mag. XX. 138/1 A bright-eyed, round-limbed virgin of *sweet sixteen. 1898J. Thornton (song-title) When you were sweet sixteen. 1977Grimsby Even. Tel. 5 May 12/3 Unfortunately everybody can't be sweet 16 and there are many shops catering for the older woman.
1716Addison Drummer iv. i, You are such a *sweet-spoken man, it does one's heart good to receive your orders.
1887J. R. Lowell Credidimus in Atlantic Monthly Feb. 251 Who knows but from our loins may spring (Long hence) some winged *sweet-throated thing. 1928W. B. Yeats tr. Sophocles' King Oedipus 5 What message of disaster from that sweet-throated Zeus?
1598Marston Pygmal., Sat. v, *Sweet tongu'd Orpheus. a1758Ramsay in Evergreen Contents vii, Sweit tungd Scot, quha sings the welcum hame. 1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. ii. v. viii, Beautiful sweet-tongued Female Citizens.
1615Markham Eng. Housew. ii. ii. (1668) 51 She must not be butter-fingred, *sweet-toothed, nor faint-hearted. 1682Wheler Journ. Greece ii. 203 The Turks are very sweet-tooth'd and love all Kind of sweet Meats. 1808Jamieson s.v. Slaik, Our use of the word seems indeed to have been borrowed from the nasty habits of sweet-toothed cooks. 1975Times 31 May 7/2 The puddings, often a weakness in French restaurants from a sweet-toothed British customer's point of view.
▸ sweet bursaria n. a prickly Australian shrub, Bursaria spinosa (family Pittosporaceae), which has dense clusters of small, sweet-scented white flowers.
1914E. E. Pescott Native Flowers Victoria 33 ‘*Sweet Bursaria’..is called in many localities the ‘Christmas Bush’. 1967N. A. Wakefield Naturalist's Diary 32 Sweet Bursaria (Bursaria spinosa) was in full bloom with its dense pyramids of small white flowers. 2005Weekly Times (Australia) (Nexis) 16 Feb. 37 Sweet bursaria is very prickly and has often been removed on farming land but it..may help keep cockchafers at bay.
▸ sweet roll n. N. Amer. any of various types of sweet-tasting bread or pastry products, esp. a glazed or filled bun eaten for breakfast.
1851E. S. Wortley Trav. U.S. 206 The jetty-locked Victoriana brings it in the morning for desayuno, with a most excellent *sweet roll (an improvement on an English bun). 1948Home Econ. Jrnl. Feb. 78/2, I chose menu 3 because a scrambled egg and bacon can do more for the body than a sweet roll and jelly. 2002Backwoods Home Mag. Nov.–Dec. 57/3 Use either biscuit dough or half-time spoon roll dough (with a little extra flour added so you can knead it) and make cinnamon sweet rolls or sticky buns.
▪ III. sweet, v.1 Now rare.
[f. sweet a.; in OE. swétan = OHG. suoȥen (MHG. sueȥen).]
1. trans. To make sweet, sweeten.
a. lit. (to the taste, smell, etc.).
c1000Sax. Leechd. III. 58 Nim þonne huniᵹ be dæle & swet þone drænc. c1200Ormin 1649 Þe sallt Þatt ure mete sweteþ. c1440J. Capgrave Life St. Kath. v. 1959 It longeth to flowres swhiche lycoure for to swete. 1542Udall Erasm. Apoph. 3 b, Hounger is the best sauce..Because the same bothe sweeteth all thynges, and also is a thyng of no coste ne charge. 1545T. Raynalde Byrth Mankynde 131 With fayre water fyrste soden and sweted with sugre. 1580Newton Approved Med. 24 The Nutmegge..stayeth vomittes, & sweeteth the Breathe. 1604Drayton Owle 69 Sweeting her Nest, and purging it of Doung. 1622Wither Philarete D v b, The mornings dewie roses: That..Cast perfumes that sweet the Aire. 1765Proc. Gen. Court Martial on Lieut. Gov. P. Thicknesse, etc. 49 It is the Lieutenant-Governor's Orders that the soldiers in Garrison sweet and clean the parade..twice a week. 1896Godey's Mag. Feb. 173 When..pine-woods sweet the air.
b. fig. (to the mind, feelings, etc.).
a900Cynewulf Juliana 525 (Gr.) He [sc. the devil] mec feran het..þæt ic þe sceolde synne swetan. 1542Udall Erasm. Apoph. E.'s Pref., What thyng better sweetteth y⊇ endityng of Marcus Tullius? 1597Breton Auspicante Jehoua Wks. (Grosart) II. 11/2 Beeing clensed from my sinne..and sweeted in my soule, by the oile of Thy grace. 1600― Daffodils & Primroses ibid. I. 14/2 Queene of suche powre As sweeteth euery sowre. a1601? Marston Pasquil & Kath. (1878) ii. 37, I haue a thankefull heart, Tho not a glorious speech to sweet my thankes. 1609Bible (Douay) Ecclus. xxvii. 26 In the sight of thyne eyes he will sweete his mouth.
2. To affect in a sweet or pleasant way; to give pleasure to, delight, gratify.
c1555Harpsfield Divorce Hen. VIII (Camden) 292 To sweet the people's ears with pleasant words [he] told them [etc.]. a1600in Ashmole Theat. Chem. Brit. (1652) 196 In thyne owne howse thow maist well gett A good Morsell of meat thy mouth to sweet. 1602Marston Antonio's Rev. iii. iii, Heavens tones Strike not such musick to immortall soules As your accordance sweetes my breast withall. 1879Blackw. Mag. Jan. 58 [West Indian Negro] You will hear of something that will sweet you greatly.
▪ IV. † sweet, v.2 Obs. rare.
[Echoic: cf. sweet-sweet.]
intr. To pipe, chirp, or twitter, as a bird.
1677N. Cox Gentl. Recreat. iii. 57 When you have so tamed them [sc. captured nightingales] that they begin to Cur and Sweet with chearfulness. Ibid., Those Birds that are long a feeding, and make no Curring nor Sweeting.
▪ V. sweet
obs. form of sweat. |