Sweet \Sweet\, a. [Compar. Sweeter; superl. Sweetest.] [OE.
swete, swote, sote, AS. sw[=e]te; akin to OFries. sw[=e]te,
OS. sw[=o]ti, D. zoet, G. s["u]ss, OHG. suozi, Icel. saetr,
soetr, Sw. s["o]t, Dan. s["o]d, Goth. suts, L. suavis, for
suadvis, Gr. ?, Skr. sv[=a]du sweet, svad, sv[=a]d, to
sweeten. [root]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.
[1913 Webster]
2. Pleasing to the smell; fragrant; redolent; balmy; as, a
sweet rose; sweet odor; sweet incense.
[1913 Webster]
The breath of these flowers is sweet to me.
--Longfellow.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
To make his English sweet upon his tongue.
--Chaucer.
[1913 Webster]
A voice sweet, tremulous, but powerful. --Hawthorne.
[1913 Webster]
4. Pleasing to the eye; beautiful; mild and attractive; fair;
as, a sweet face; a sweet color or complexion.
[1913 Webster]
Sweet interchange
Of hill and valley, rivers, woods, and plains.
--Milton.
[1913 Webster]
5. Fresh; not salt or brackish; as, sweet water. --Bacon.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
7. Plaesing to the mind; mild; gentle; calm; amiable;
winning; presuasive; as, sweet manners.
[1913 Webster]
Canst thou bind the sweet influence of Pleiades?
--Job xxxviii.
31.
[1913 Webster]
Mildness and sweet reasonableness is the one
established rule of Christian working. --M. Arnold.
[1913 Webster]
Note: Sweet is often used in the formation of self-explaining
compounds; as, sweet-blossomed, sweet-featured,
sweet-smelling, sweet-tempered, sweet-toned, etc.
[1913 Webster]
Sweet alyssum. (Bot.) See Alyssum.
Sweet apple. (Bot.)
(a) Any apple of sweet flavor.
(b) See Sweet-sop.
Sweet bay. (Bot.)
(a) The laurel (Laurus nobilis).
(b) Swamp sassafras.
Sweet calabash (Bot.), a plant of the genus Passiflora
(Passiflora 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 (Myrrhis 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
asplenifolia syn. 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 (Zool.), 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 (Centaurea
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) (Zool.) The willow warbler.
(c) (Zool.) 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.
[1913 Webster]
Syn: Sugary; saccharine; dulcet; luscious.
[1913 Webster]
|
Corn \Corn\, n. [AS. corn; akin to OS. korn, D. koren, G., Dan.,
Sw., & Icel. korn, Goth. ka['u]rn, L. granum, Russ. zerno.
Cf. Grain, Kernel.]
1. A single seed of certain plants, as wheat, rye, barley,
and maize; a grain.
[1913 Webster]
2. The various farinaceous grains of the cereal grasses used
for food, as wheat, rye, barley, maize, oats.
[1913 Webster]
Note: In Scotland, corn is generally restricted to oats, in
the United States, to maize, or Indian corn (see
sense 3), and in England to wheat.
[1913 Webster +PJC]
3. a tall cereal plant (Zea mays) bearing its seeds as
large kernels in multiple rows on the surface of a hard
cylindrical ear, the core of which (the cob) is not
edible; -- also called Indian corn and, in technical
literature, maize. There are several kinds; as, yellow
corn, which grows chiefly in the Northern States, and is
yellow when ripe; white corn or southern corn, which
grows to a great height, and has long white kernels;
sweet corn, comprising a number of sweet and tender
varieties, grown chiefly at the North, some of which have
kernels that wrinkle when ripe and dry; pop corn, any
small variety, used for popping. Corn seeds may be cooked
while on the ear and eaten directly, or may be stripped
from the ear and cooked subsequently. The term Indian
corn is often used to refer to a primitive type of corn
having kernels of varied color borne on the same cob; it
is used for decoration, especially in the fall.
[1913 Webster +PJC]
4. The plants which produce corn, when growing in the field;
the stalks and ears, or the stalks, ears, and seeds, after
reaping and before thrashing.
[1913 Webster]
In one night, ere glimpse of morn,
His shadowy flail had thrashed the corn. --Milton.
[1913 Webster]
5. A small, hard particle; a grain. "Corn of sand." --Bp.
Hall. "A corn of powder." --Beau. & Fl.
[1913 Webster]
Corn ball, a ball of popped corn stuck together with soft
candy from molasses or sugar.
Corn bread, bread made of Indian meal.
Corn cake, a kind of corn bread; johnny cake; hoecake.
Corn cockle (Bot.), a weed (Agrostemma Githago syn.
Lychnis Githago), having bright flowers, common in grain
fields.
Corn flag (Bot.), a plant of the genus Gladiolus; --
called also sword lily.
Corn fly. (Zool.)
(a) A small fly which, in the larval state, is injurious
to grain, living in the stalk, and causing the disease
called "gout," on account of the swelled joints. The
common European species is Chlorops t[ae]niopus.
(b) A small fly (Anthomyia ze) whose larva or maggot
destroys seed corn after it has been planted.
Corn fritter, a fritter having green Indian corn mixed
through its batter. [U. S.]
Corn laws, laws regulating trade in corn, especially those
in force in Great Britain till 1846, prohibiting the
importation of foreign grain for home consumption, except
when the price rose above a certain rate.
Corn marigold. (Bot.) See under Marigold.
Corn oyster, a fritter containing grated green Indian corn
and butter, the combined taste resembling that of oysters.
[U.S.]
Corn parsley (Bot.), a plant of the parsley genus
(Petroselinum segetum), a weed in parts of Europe and
Asia.
Corn popper, a utensil used in popping corn.
Corn poppy (Bot.), the red poppy (Papaver Rh[oe]as),
common in European cornfields; -- also called corn rose.
Corn rent, rent paid in corn.
Corn rose. See Corn poppy.
Corn salad (Bot.), a name given to several species of
Valerianella, annual herbs sometimes used for salad.
Valerianella olitoria is also called lamb's lettuce.
Corn stone, red limestone. [Prov. Eng.]
Corn violet (Bot.), a species of Campanula.
Corn weevil. (Zool.)
(a) A small weevil which causes great injury to grain.
(b) In America, a weevil (Sphenophorus ze[ae]) which
attacks the stalk of maize near the root, often doing
great damage. See Grain weevil, under Weevil.
[1913 Webster]
|