sweet

comparative sweeter · superlative sweetest · alternative obsolete sweete

1. Tasting of sugars.

   a sweet apple

   1 more example

   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.

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

2. beveragesRetaining a portion of sugar.

   Sweet wines are better dessert wines.

   Synonyms: saccharine, sugary

3. Not of a salty taste.

   sweet butter

   Synonyms: fresh, unsalty

4. Having a pleasant smell; fragrant.

   a sweet scent

   1 more example

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

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

   Synonyms: fragrant, odoriferous, odorous, perfumed, scented, sweet-scented, sweet-smelling

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

   sweet milk

   Synonyms: fresh, unfermented, wholesome

6. Of a pleasant sound.

   a sweet tune

   3 more examples

   Smooth jazz music has sweet drum beats and cymbals!

   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.

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

   a voice sweet, tremulous, but powerful

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

   Synonyms: dulcet, honeyed, mellifluous, mellisonant

7. Of a pleasing disposition.

   a sweet child

   3 more examples

   It was sweet of her to send some roses for her unwell grandmother.

   You're so sweet!

   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

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

   Synonyms: cute, lovable, pleasant

8. Of a helpful disposition.

   It was sweet of him to help out.

   Synonyms: kind, gracious, helpful, sensitive, thoughtful

9. chemistryFree from excessive unwanted substances like acid or sulphur.

   sweet gas

   2 more examples

   sweet soil

   sweet crude oil

10. informalVery pleasing; agreeable.

    The new Lexus was a sweet birthday gift.

    2 more examples

    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.

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

    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.

    Synonyms: rad, awesome, wicked

11. AustraliaslangDoing well; in a good or happy position.

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

    2012, John Hoskison, Inside: One Man's Experience of Prison

    Synonyms: sugared, sweetened

12. informalRomantically 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

    2 more examples

    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.

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

    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.

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

14. UKdatedAlkaline.
15. Pleasing to the eye; beautiful; mild and attractive; fair.

    a sweet face

    2 more examples

    a sweet colour or complexion

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

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

16. An intensifier.

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

    2014, Rexanne Becnel, Leaving L.A., page 12

alternative obsolete sweete

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

   They're making a sequel? Ah, sweet!

comparative more sweet · superlative most sweet · alternative obsolete sweete

1. In a pleasant manner.

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

   1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XXXVII”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 57

   Synonyms: sweetly

plural sweets · alternative obsolete sweete

1. uncountableThe basic taste sensation induced by sugar.

   Synonyms: sweetness

2. IndiaUKcountableespeciallyA confection made from sugar, or high in sugar content; a candy.

   Synonyms: bonbon, candy, confection, confectionery, lolly

3. UKcountableespeciallyA food eaten for dessert.

   Can we see the sweet menu, please?

   Synonyms: dessert

4. countableuncountableSynonym of sweetheart, a term of affection.

   Good evening, my sweet.

   2 more examples

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

   1611, Ben[jamin] Jonson, Catiline His Conspiracy, London: […] [William Stansby?] for Walter Burre, →OCLC, Act I, signature B2, verso

   "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.

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

   Synonyms: sweetheart

5. countableobsoleteuncountableThat which is sweet or pleasant in odour; a perfume.

   a wilderness of sweets

   1667, John Milton, “Book V”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC

6. countableobsoleteuncountableSweetness, delight; something pleasant to the mind or senses.

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

   1613, John Marston, William Barksted, The Insatiate Countess, III.2

present singular third person sweets · participle present sweeting · participle past sweeted · past sweeted · alternative obsolete sweete

1. archaicpoeticTo sweeten.

   A sour maketh sweets two-fold sweeted.

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

   3 more examples

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

   1825, John Breckinridge, C.R. Harrison, Western Luminary ... - Volume 1, page 318

   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.

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

   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.

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

1. A surname.
2. A female given name.
3. An unincorporated community in Gem County, Idaho, United States.