sweet

English

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sweet

Wikipedia

Etymology

From Middle English swete, from Old English swēte (“sweet”), from Proto-West Germanic *swōtī, from Proto-Germanic *swōtuz (“sweet”), from Proto-Indo-European *swéh₂dus (“sweet”).

Cognate and synonymous with Scots sweit (“sweet”), North Frisian sweete (“sweet”), Saterland Frisian swäit (“sweet”), West Frisian swiet (“sweet”), Dutch zoet (“sweet”), German Low German sööt (“sweet”), German süß (“sweet”), Danish sød (“sweet”), Swedish söt (“sweet”), Norwegian søt (“sweet”), Icelandic sætur (“sweet”), Latin suāvis, Sanskrit स्वादु (svādú), Ancient Greek ἡδύς (hēdús). Doublet of suave.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /swiːt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /swit/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Homophone: suite
• Rhymes: -iːt

Adjective

sweet (comparative sweeter, superlative sweetest)

1. Tasting of sugars.

   a sweet apple

   • 2018 May 16, Adam Rogers, “The Fundamental Nihilism of Yanny vs. Laurel”, in Wired:

     A few types of molecules get sensed by receptors on the tongue. Protons coming off of acids ping receptors for "sour." Sugars get received as "sweet." Bitter, salty, and the proteinaceous flavor umami all set off their own neural cascades.

2. (wine) Retaining a portion of sugar.

   Sweet wines are better dessert wines.

3. Not of a salty taste.

   sweet butter

4. Of a pleasant smell.

   a sweet scent

   • 1838 October, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “The Reaper and the Flowers”, in Voices of the Night, Cambridge, Mass.: John Owen, published 1839, →OCLC, page 8:

     Though the breath of these flowers is sweet to me, / I will give them all back again.

5. Not decaying, fermented, rancid, sour, spoiled, or stale.

   sweet milk

6. Of a pleasant sound.

   a sweet tune

   • a. 1823 (date written), Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Hymn of Pan”, in Mary W[ollstonecraft] Shelley, editor, Posthumous Poems of Percy Bysshe Shelley, London: for John and Henry L Hunt, , published 1824, →OCLC, page 169:

     The cicale above in the lime, / And the lizards below in the grass, / Were as silent as ever old Tmolus was, / Listening to my sweet pipings.

   • 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, Ticknor and Fields, page 135:

     a voice sweet, tremulous, but powerful

7. Of a pleasing disposition.

   a sweet child

   You're so sweet!

   • 2017 April 13, Mitchy Collins, Samantha Derosa, Christian Medice, “Broken”, in Finding It Hard to Smile‎, performed by Lovelytheband:

     There's something tragic, but almost pure / Think I could love you, but I'm not sure / There's something wholesome, there's something sweet / Tucked in your eyes that I'd love to meet

8. Of a helpful disposition.

   It was sweet of him to help out.

9. (mineralogy) Free from excessive unwanted substances like acid or sulphur.

   sweet gas

   sweet soil

   sweet crude oil

10. (informal) Very pleasing; agreeable.

    The new Lexus was a sweet birthday gift.

    • 1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 1:

      Her crew knew that deep in her heart beat engines fit and able to push her blunt old nose ahead at a sweet fourteen knots, come Hell or high water.

    • 14 November 2014, Steven Haliday, Scotland 1-0 Republic of Ireland: Maloney the hero

      GORDON Strachan enjoyed the sweetest of his 16 matches in charge of Scotland so far as his team enhanced their prospects of Euro 2016 qualification with a crucial and deserved victory over Republic of Ireland.

11. (Australia, slang) Doing well; in a good or happy position.
    • 2012, John Hoskison, Inside: One Man's Experience of Prison:

      "Visit in two days though," said Tommo. "Hang in there mate, got a joey coming, we'll be sweet then."

12. (informal, followed by on) Romantically fixated; enamored with; fond of.

    The attraction was mutual and instant; they were sweet on one another from first sight.

13. Fresh; not salt or brackish.

    sweet water

    • 1627, Francis Bacon, “Sylva Sylvarum: or A Natural History”, in The Works of Francis Bacon, published 1826, page 66:

      The white of an egg, or blood mingled with salt water, doth gather the saltness and maketh the water sweeter; this may be by adhesion.

    • 1821, Robert Thomas, The modern practice of physic, page 713:

      Nothing has been found so effectual for preserving water sweet at sea, during long voyages, as charring the insides of the casks well before they are filled.

14. (of soil, UK, dated) Alkaline.
16. Pleasing to the eye; beautiful; mild and attractive; fair.

    a sweet face

    a sweet colour or complexion

    • 1667, John Milton, Paradise lost (source), Samuel Simmons, page 278:

      Sweet interchange / Of hill and valley, rivers, woods, and plains.

17. An intensifier.
    • 2014, Rexanne Becnel, Leaving L.A., page 12:

      For someone who hadn't seen her only sister in over twenty years, Alice sure took her sweet time.

Synonyms

• (of a taste of sugar): saccharine, sugary
• (containing a sweetening ingredient): sugared, sweetened
• (not of a salty taste): fresh, unsalty
• (of a pleasant smell): fragrant, odoriferous, odorous, perfumed, scented, sweet-scented, sweet-smelling
• (not decaying, fermented, rancid, sour, spoiled, or stale): fresh, unfermented, wholesome
• (of a pleasant sound): dulcet, honeyed, mellifluous, mellisonant
• (of a pleasing disposition): cute, lovable, pleasant
• (of a helpful disposition): kind, gracious, helpful, sensitive, thoughtful
• ((informal) very pleasing): rad, awesome, wicked

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of "of a pleasant taste"): bitter, sour, salty
• (antonym(s) of "containing a sweetening ingredient"): nonsweet, sugarless, unsugared, unsweetened, unsweet
• (antonym(s) of "of wines: retaining a portion of natural sugar"): dry
• (antonym(s) of "not decaying, fermented, rancid, sour, spoiled, or stale"): decaying, fermented, rancid, sour, spoiled, stale
• (antonym(s) of "not of a salty taste"): salty, savoury
• (antonym(s) of "free from excessive unwanted substances"): sour
• (antonym(s) of "alkaline"): sour
• (antonym(s) of "(informal) very pleasing"): lame, uncool

Derived terms

Translations

See also

Basic tastes in English (layout · text)
sweet	sour	salty	bitter	spicy	savory

Interjection

sweet

1. Used as a positive response to good news or information.

   They're making a sequel? Ah, sweet!

Adverb

sweet (comparative more sweet, superlative most sweet)

1. In a sweet manner.
   • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, , →OCLC, Canto XXXVII, page 57:

     Go down beside thy native rill,
     ⁠On thy Parnassus set thy feet,
     ⁠And hear thy laurel whisper sweet
     About the ledges of the hill.

Synonyms

• (in a sweet manner): sweetly

Translations

Noun

sweet (countable and uncountable, plural sweets)

1. (uncountable) The basic taste sensation induced by sugar.
2. (countable, especially UK) A confection made from sugar, or high in sugar content; a candy.
3. (countable, especially UK) A food eaten for dessert.

   Can we see the sweet menu, please?

4. Synonym of sweetheart, a term of affection.
   • 1611, Ben[jamin] Jonson, Catiline His Conspiracy, London: [William Stansby?] for Walter Burre, →OCLC, Act I, signature B2, verso:

     VVherefore frovvnes my ſvveet? / Haue I too long bene abſent from theſe lips, / This cheeke, theſe eyes?

   • 1936 Aug., Ernest Hemingway, "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber", Cosmopolitan:

     "You think that I'll take anything."
     "I know you will, sweet..."
     "There wasn't going to be any of that. You promised there wouldn't be."
     "Well, there is now," she said sweetly.

   Good evening, my sweet.

5. (obsolete) That which is sweet or pleasant in odour; a perfume.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book V”, in Paradise Lost. , London: [Samuel Simmons], , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC:

     a wilderness of sweets

6. (obsolete) Sweetness, delight; something pleasant to the mind or senses.
   • 1613, John Marston, William Barksted, The Insatiate Countess, III.2:

     Fear's fire to fervency, which makes love's sweet prove nectar.

Synonyms

• (sweet taste sensation): See sweetness
• (food that is high in sugar content): bonbon, candy (US), confection, confectionery, lolly (Australia)
• (food eaten for dessert): See dessert

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

sweet (third-person singular simple present sweets, present participle sweeting, simple past and past participle sweeted)

1. (archaic or poetic) To sweeten.
   • 1825, John Breckinridge, C.R. Harrison, Western Luminary ... - Volume 1, page 318:

     In size and shape it resembles the heart of a calf, and the interior substance is similar to thick cream, sweeted with fine sugar.

   • 1890, The Cincinnati Lancet-clinic - Volume 63, page 331:

     It might also be given in the form of a mixture — the drug being insoluble in a watery menstruum — suspended by the aid of mucilage and sweeted by any of the various flavoring syrups.

   • 1997, Morag Styles, From the Garden to the Street, →ISBN:

     Bring me now where the warm wind blows, where the grasses sigh, where the sweet-tongued blossom flowers; where the shower, fan soft like a fishermans net thrown through the sweeted air.

   • 2012, Keith Ringkamp, PATIENCE WORTH: A Balm for Every Ill, →ISBN, page 34:

     A sour maketh sweets two-fold sweeted.

Derived terms

• sweet upon

See also

• toot sweet

Anagrams

• Tewes, weest, weets

Afrikaans

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /svɪə̯t/

Etymology 1

From Dutch zweet, from Middle Dutch sweet, from Old Dutch *sweit, *swēt, from Proto-Germanic *swait-, from Proto-Indo-European *sweyd-.

Noun

sweet (uncountable)

1. sweat

   Daar was baie sweet op haar voorhoof.

   There was a lot of sweat on her forehead.

Etymology 2

From Dutch zweten, from Middle Dutch swêten.

Verb

sweet (present sweet, present participle swetende, past participle gesweet)

1. to sweat

Chinese

Alternative forms

• 時weet／时weet (si⁴ wit¹), 是weet (si⁶ wit¹), 士weet (si⁶ wit¹)

Etymology

From English sweet.

Pronunciation

Adjective

sweet

1. (Hong Kong Cantonese) romantic

Derived terms

Middle Dutch

Etymology

From Old Dutch *swēt, from Proto-Germanic *swait-.

Noun

swêet n

1. sweat, perspiration

Inflection

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

Alternative forms

• sweit

Derived terms

• swêten

Descendants

• Dutch: zweet
• Limburgish: zweit

Further reading

• “sweet”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
• Verwijs, E., Verdam, J. (1885–1929) “sweet”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, →ISBN

Yola

Etymology

From Middle English swete, from Old English swēte, from Proto-West Germanic *swōtī.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /swiːt/

Adjective

sweet

1. sweet
   • 1867, “THE WEDDEEN O BALLYMORE”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 2, page 94:

     Hea marreet dear Phielim to his sweet Jauane.

     He married dear Phelim to his sweet Joan.

Derived terms

• sweethearth

References

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 94