sweet

Humans like sweet things (sugar being a fine example) instinctively from birth - all other tastes are acquired.

The tastebuds on the tip of the tongue are sensitive to sweet tasting things.

In jazz and swing music, "sweet" means a straightforward tempo and melody, without extensive improvisation or marked syncopation. The opposite of "hot".

A word I use far too often, only because it so closely resembles, both in sound and meaning, the impression I'm trying to communicate. There are a grave shortage of words describing praise or excitement in the first place; we all overuse beautiful, wonderful, great, gorgeous, awesome, and fantastic, and like the boy who cried wolf, they become less powerful each time.

But the word "sweet" stands out in my mind. It has its low moments, like the times when a girl will tell a boy he's sweet as a way of saying she's not interested in a spineless pushover like him. But as a word to describe those innocent, happy, serendipitous moments that make you uncommonly and irrationally contented, a better word can hardly be found.

I go through crushes like a Suburban goes through gasoline, and "sweet" is the only word that comes close to describing what these crushes are like. I honestly have no thoughts below the waist, I'm just terribly happy to see them, and I smile when they smile.

I'm often in a sing-song mood for no apparent reason; sometimes I even skip around, oblivious to what a dork I must look like. I could not accurately describe my attitude toward life at moments like these without using the word "sweet."

And it goes without saying that looking into the eyes of the one you love is perhaps the kind of moment that the word was created to describe.

sweet

Easy to be imposed on, or taken in ; also expert, dexterous clever.

Sweet's your hand ; said of one dexterous at stealing.

sweet heart

A term applicable to either the masculine or feminine gender, signifying a girl's lover, or a man's mistress : derived from a sweet cake in the shape of a heart.

sweetness

Guinea droppers, cheats, sharpers.

To sweeten ; to decoy, or draw in.

To be sweet upon ; to coax, wheedle, court, or allure.

He seemed sweet upon that wench ; he seemed to court that girl.

The 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.

Sweet (?), a. [Compar. Sweeter (?); superl. Sweetest.] [OE. swete, swote, sote, AS. sw�xc7;te; akin to OFries. sw�xc7;te, OS. swoti, D. zoet, G. suss, OHG. suozi, Icel. saetr, setr, Sw. sot, Dan. sod, Goth. suts, L. suavis, for suadvis, Gr. , Skr. svadu sweet, svad, svad, 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. 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. Chaucer.

A voice sweet, tremulous, but powerful. 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. Milton.

5.

Fresh; not salt or brackish; as, sweet water.

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.

Plaesing to the mind; mild; gentle; calm; amiable; winning; presuasive; 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. M. 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. Bot. See Alyssum. -- Sweet apple. Bot. (a) Any apple of sweet flavor. (b) See Sweet-top. -- Sweet bay. Bot. (a) The laurel (laurus nobilis). (b) Swamp sassafras. -- Sweet calabash Bot., a plant of the genus Passiflora (P. maliformis) growing in the West Indies, and producing a roundish, edible fruit, the size of an apple. -- Sweet cicely. Bot. (a) Either of the North American plants of the umbelliferous genus Osmorrhiza having aromatic roots and seeds, and white flowers. Gray. (b) A plant of the genus Myrrhis (M. odorata) growing in England. -- Sweet calamus, ∨ Sweet cane. Bot. Same as Sweet flag, below. -- Sweet Cistus Bot., an evergreen shrub (Cistus Ladanum) from which the gum ladanum is obtained. -- Sweet clover. Bot. See Melilot. -- Sweet coltsfoot Bot., a kind of butterbur (Petasites sagittata) found in Western North America. -- Sweet corn Bot., a variety of the maize of a sweet taste. See the Note under Corn. -- Sweet fern Bot., a small North American shrub (Comptonia, ∨ Myrica, asplenifolia) having sweet-scented or aromatic leaves resembling fern leaves. -- Sweet flag Bot., 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 Bot., a shrub (Myrica Gale) having bitter fragrant leaves; -- also called sweet willow, and Dutch myrtle. See 5th Gale. Sweet grass Bot., holy, or Seneca, grass. -- Sweet gum Bot., an American tree (Liquidambar styraciflua). See Liquidambar. -- Sweet herbs, fragrant herbs cultivated for culinary purposes. -- Sweet John Bot., a variety of the sweet William. -- Sweet leaf Bot., horse sugar. See under Horse. -- Sweet marjoram. Bot. See Marjoram. -- Sweet marten Zool., the pine marten. -- Sweet maudlin Bot., a composite plant (Achillea Ageratum) allied to milfoil. -- Sweet oil, olive oil. -- Sweet pea. Bot. See under Pea. -- Sweet potato. Bot. See under Potato. -- Sweet rush Bot., sweet flag. -- Sweet spirits of niter Med. Chem. See Spirit of nitrous ether, under Spirit. -- Sweet sultan Bot., an annual composite plant (Centaurea moschata), also, the yellow-flowered (C. odorata); -- called also sultan flower. -- Sweet tooth, an especial fondness for sweet things or for sweetmeats. [Colloq.] -- Sweet William. (a) Bot. A species of pink (Dianthus barbatus) of many varieties. (b) Zool. The willow warbler. (c) Zool. The European goldfinch; -- called also sweet Billy. [Prov. Eng.] -- Sweet willow Bot., 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. [Colloq.] Thackeray.

Syn. -- Sugary; saccharine; dulcet; luscious.

 

© Webster 1913.

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Sweet (?), n.

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."

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. Locke.

4.

One who is dear to another; a darling; -- a term of endearment.

"Wherefore frowns my sweet?"

B. Jonson.

 

© Webster 1913.

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Sweet, adv.

Sweetly.

Shak.

 

© Webster 1913.

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Sweet, v. t.

To sweeten.

[Obs.]

Udall.

 

© Webster 1913.