Meanings
- Said when one is satisfied in taking revenge.
With base deceit / You worked upon our feelings! / Revenge is sweet, / And flavours all our dealings!
1879, W[illiam] S[chwenck] Gilbert, Arthur Sullivan, composer, The Pirates of Penzance […], Philadelphia: J.M. Stoddart & Co., published 1880, →OCLC3 more examples
[…]wee can force no anſwere from him, but (Ô reuenge, how ſweet art thou! I will ſtrangle him in this towell)[…]
1609 December (first performance), Beniamin Ionson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Epicoene, or The Silent Woman. A Comœdie. […]”, in The Workes of Beniamin Ionson (First Folio), London: […] Will[iam] Stansby, published 1616, →OCLC, Act IV, scene ii, page 579The ci-devant marquis was caught disguised in her apartment. She betrayed for him a good, easy friend of the people who had long loved her, and revenge is sweet.
1846, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], Lucretia: Or The Children of Night. […], volume I, London: Saunders and Otley, […], →OCLCAll revenge is sweet; but what revenge so sweet to any man as that which came to his arms of its own accord? I do notice that men can't read men, but any woman can read a woman.
1866, Charles Reade, Griffith Gaunt, or Jealousy, Boston: Ticknor and Fields
Translations
Chinese Mandarin 报仇雪恨，大快人心, 報仇雪恨，大快人心 /报仇雪恨，大快人心
- 报仇雪恨，大快人心said when one is satisfied in taking revenge
- 報仇雪恨，大快人心 /报仇雪恨，大快人心said when one is satisfied in taking revenge
Finnish kosto on suloinen
- kosto on suloinensaid when one is satisfied in taking revenge
German Rache ist süß
- Rache ist süßsaid when one is satisfied in taking revenge
Polish zemsta jest słodka, zemsta jest rozkoszą bogów
- zemsta jest słodkasaid when one is satisfied in taking revenge
- zemsta jest rozkoszą bogówsaid when one is satisfied in taking revenge
Cite this entry
revenge is sweet. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/revenge%20is%20sweet
“revenge is sweet.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/revenge%20is%20sweet. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “revenge is sweet,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/revenge%20is%20sweet.
Source: revenge is sweet on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.