Sweet (?), a. [Compar.
Sweeter (?); superl. Sweetest.] [OE.
swete, swote, sote, AS. swēte; akin
to OFries. swēte, OS. swōti, D. zoet,
G. süss, OHG. suozi, Icel. sætr,
sœtr, Sw. söt, Dan. söd, Goth.
suts, L. suavis, for suadvis, Gr. ?, Skr.
svādu sweet, svad, svād, to sweeten.
√175. Cf. Assuage, Suave, Suasion.]
1. Having an agreeable taste or flavor such as
that of sugar; saccharine; -- opposed to sour and
bitter; as, a sweet beverage; sweet fruits;
sweet oranges.
2. Pleasing to the smell; fragrant; redolent;
balmy; as, a sweet rose; sweet odor; sweet
incense.
The breath of these flowers is sweet to
me.
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, or 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, or
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 (Zoöl.), 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) (Zoöl.) The willow
warbler. (c) (Zoöl.) 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.