semisweetly

comparative more semisweetly · superlative most semisweetly

1. In a somewhat sweet manner, but with an element of asperity.

   Kinsey smiled semisweetly.

   2010, Alison Kent, Wicked Games, page 122

   2 more examples

   "Let's not and say we did," she said semisweetly— I didn't know her well enough to read her level of sarcasm.

   2007, Jim Ray Daniels, Mr. Pleasant, page 57

   In this connection, a student of mine once described Catullus as like a lucid drunk: drunk just enough to tell it like it is but semisweetly, maybe bitterly, indeed a bit salty.

   2013, Benjamin Eldon Stevens, Silence in Catullus, page 80