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.
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2. Pleasing to the smell; fragrant; redolent; balmy; as, a
sweet rose; sweet odor; sweet incense.
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The breath of these flowers is sweet to me.
--Longfellow.
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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.
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To make his English sweet upon his tongue.
--Chaucer.
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A voice sweet, tremulous, but powerful. --Hawthorne.
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4. Pleasing to the eye; beautiful; mild and attractive; fair;
as, a sweet face; a sweet color or complexion.
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Sweet interchange
Of hill and valley, rivers, woods, and plains.
--Milton.
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5. Fresh; not salt or brackish; as, sweet water. --Bacon.
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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.
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7. Plaesing to the mind; mild; gentle; calm; amiable;
winning; presuasive; as, sweet manners.
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Canst thou bind the sweet influence of Pleiades?
--Job xxxviii.
31.
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Mildness and sweet reasonableness is the one
established rule of Christian working. --M. Arnold.
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Note: Sweet is often used in the formation of self-explaining
compounds; as, sweet-blossomed, sweet-featured,
sweet-smelling, sweet-tempered, sweet-toned, etc.
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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.
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Syn: Sugary; saccharine; dulcet; luscious.
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Willow \Wil"low\, n. [OE. wilowe, wilwe, AS. wilig, welig; akin
to OD. wilge, D. wilg, LG. wilge. Cf. Willy.]
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1. (Bot.) Any tree or shrub of the genus Salix, including
many species, most of which are characterized often used
as an emblem of sorrow, desolation, or desertion. "A
wreath of willow to show my forsaken plight." --Sir W.
Scott. Hence, a lover forsaken by, or having lost, the
person beloved, is said to wear the willow.
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And I must wear the willow garland
For him that's dead or false to me. --Campbell.
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2. (Textile Manuf.) A machine in which cotton or wool is
opened and cleansed by the action of long spikes
projecting from a drum which revolves within a box studded
with similar spikes; -- probably so called from having
been originally a cylindrical cage made of willow rods,
though some derive the term from winnow, as denoting the
winnowing, or cleansing, action of the machine. Called
also willy, twilly, twilly devil, and devil.
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Almond willow, Pussy willow, Weeping willow. (Bot.) See
under Almond, Pussy, and Weeping.
Willow biter (Zool.) the blue tit. [Prov. Eng.]
Willow fly (Zool.), a greenish European stone fly
(Chloroperla viridis); -- called also yellow Sally.
Willow gall (Zool.), a conical, scaly gall produced on
willows by the larva of a small dipterous fly (Cecidomyia
strobiloides).
Willow grouse (Zool.), the white ptarmigan. See
ptarmigan.
Willow lark (Zool.), the sedge warbler. [Prov. Eng.]
Willow ptarmigan (Zool.)
(a) The European reed bunting, or black-headed bunting.
See under Reed.
(b) A sparrow (Passer salicicolus) native of Asia,
Africa, and Southern Europe.
Willow tea, the prepared leaves of a species of willow
largely grown in the neighborhood of Shanghai, extensively
used by the poorer classes of Chinese as a substitute for
tea. --McElrath.
Willow thrush (Zool.), a variety of the veery, or Wilson's
thrush. See Veery.
Willow warbler (Zool.), a very small European warbler
(Phylloscopus trochilus); -- called also bee bird,
haybird, golden wren, pettychaps, sweet William,
Tom Thumb, and willow wren.
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