Forms: see next. [SWEET a. used subst.]
1. That which is sweet to the taste; something having a sweet taste. Chiefly poet.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 7126. Of þe etand þe mete vt sprang, And þe suete vte o þe strang. Ibid., 23979. He dranc þe sure and i þe suete.
1390. Gower, Conf., I. 83. Fulofte and thus the swete soureth, Whan it is knowe to the tast.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. iii. 30. A dram of sweet is worth a pound of sowre.
1607. Shaks., Cor., III. i. 157. Let them not licke The sweet which is their poyson.
1611. Bible, 1 Esdras ix. 51. Goe then and eate the fat, and drinke the sweet, and send part to them that haue nothing.
1781. Cowper, Conversat., 440. The mind … Visiting ev’ry flow’r with labour meet, And gathering all her treasures sweet by sweet.
b. A sweet food or drink.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 13683. Fortune … Lurkis in lightly with lustis in hert, Gers hym swolow a swete, þat swellis hym after.
1660. F. Brooke, trans. Le Blanc’s Trav., 22. The Nobility of the Country affect much to eat Ambar, Musk, and other sweets.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 300. Such Rage of Honey in their Bosom beats: And such a Zeal they have for flow’ry Sweets.
1743. Francis, trans. Hor., Odes, IV. xii. 22. Bring the glad merchandise, with sweets replete.
1802. Eng. Encycl., V. 610/2. The purer sweets, as sugar…. The unctuous and mucilaginous sweets, as the impure sugars, liquorice, &c.
1861. Flor. Nightingale, Nursing (ed. 2), 51. I have never known a person take to sweets when he was ill who disliked them when he was well.
1887. Jefferies, Amaryllis, iii. If there were two courses, then bread between to prepare the palate, and to prevent the sweets from quarrelling with the acids.
c. pl. Syrup added to wine or other liquor to sweeten and improve its flavor; hence, wine or other liquor thus sweetened; applied spec. to British wines and cordials.
a. 1679. Sir J. Moore, Eng. Interest (1703), 33. The best way to Order your Sugar before you put it into your Cyder, is to make it into a kind of Syrup or Sweets.
1696. Act 7 & 8 Will. III., c. 30 § 6. Mixed Liquors commonly called and known by the Name of Sweets, made from foreign or English Materials.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Sweets, the Dreggs of Sugar used by Vintners, to allay the undue fermenting or fretting of their Wine.
1765. Blackstone, Comm., I. viii. 320. All artificial wines, commonly called sweets.
1842. Penny Mag., 29 Oct., 431/1. Mark Beaufoy … entered his name at the Excise as a ‘maker of sweets’ about a century ago.
1845. G. Dodd, Brit. Manuf., 98. At first the name of ‘sweets’ was confined principally to the varieties of raisin-wine.
1889. Act 52 & 53 Vict., c. 42 § 28. The expression ‘sweets or made wines’ shall mean any liquor which is made from fruit and sugar … and which has undergone a process of fermentation.
d. spec. A sweet dish (a pudding, tart, cooked fruit, etc.), or one of several such, forming a separate course at a meal. Usually pl.
1834. Dickens, Sk. Boz, Steam Excurs. The sweets [on the table] shook and trembled till it was quite impossible to help them.
1852. Thackeray, Esmond, II. xv. By the time the soup came he fancied they must have been hours at table; and as for the sweets and jellies, he thought they never would be done.
a. 1864. Hawthorne, Grimshawe, xix. (1891), 246. And entremets, and ‘sweets,’ as the English call them.
1890. R. C. Lehmann, Harry Fludyer, 41. There was a delicious sweet for luncheon…. It was like a sort of bird’s-nest in spun barley-sugar with whipped cream eggs inside.
e. A sweetmeat, esp. in lozenge or ‘drop’ form. SWEETIE is earlier in this sense.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, I. 203/2. Rose acid, which is a ‘transparent’ sweet.
1865. Dickens, Mut. Fr., I. v. The basket supplied the few small lots of fruit and sweets that he offered for sale.
1877. R. J. More, Under the Balkans, XV. 216. Sweets, jelly, and water were then handed round by the bridesmaids to the assembled guests.
2. Sweetness of taste; sweet taste. rare.
c. 1381. Chaucer, Parl. Foules, 161. For thu of loue last lost thi tast, y gesse As seek man hath of swete & bitternesse.
1705. Beverley, Virginia, II. iv. § 13 (1722), 113. Their [sc. mulberries’] Taste … being of a faintish Sweet, without any Tartness.
1887. Ladd, Physiol. Psychol., II. iii. § 13. 313. It seems tolerably well established that sweet and sour are tasted chiefly with the tip of the tongue.
3. That which is pleasant to the mind or feelings; something that affords enjoyment or gratifies desire; (a) pleasure, (b) delight; the pleasant part of something. In later use chiefly in pl., the pleasures or delights of something.
Often in contrast with bitter, sour, and in expressions retaining literal phraseology, e.g., to taste or suck the sweet(s) of.
sing. 1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XI. 250. Al though it be soure to suffre þere cometh swete [C. XIII. 143 a swete] after.
1423. James I., Kingis Q., clxxxii. Euery wicht his awin suete or sore Has maist In mynde.
c. 1440. Jacob’s Well, 106. He had leuere lesyn thre massys þan to forgo oo slepe or o sweet in þe morwenyng.
1553. T. Wilson, Rhet. (1580), 31. Where the sweete hath his sower ioyned with hym.
1560. Rolland, Seven Sages, 70. He … had slokinnit of bedsolace the sweit.
1589. Cooper, Admon., 178. Princes … which suck the sweete from the people of God.
1611. Shaks., Wint. T., IV. iii. 3. When Daffadils begin to peere,… Why, then comes in the sweet o’ the yeere.
1637. Heywood, Pleas. Dial., Wks. 1874, VI. 302. Who can know the sweet of ease, That never was in paine?
1697. Dampier, Voy. round World (1699), 64. Our Jamaicamen Trade thither indeed, and find the sweet of it.
1725. Pope, Odyss., V. 152. Love, the only sweet of life.
1878. Browning, La Saisiaz, 310. Must … Every sweet warn ‘’Ware my bitter!’
pl. 1583. Melbancke, Philotimus, C iij. Alwayes shun such bitter sweets.
1590. Lodge, Rosalind (1592), G iij. Of all soft sweets, I like my mistris brest.
1596. Shaks., Tam. Shr., I. i. 28. To sucke the sweets of sweete Philosophie.
1607. Tourneur, Rev. Trag., IV. i. G j. An incredible Act … Twixt my Step-mother and the Bastard, oh, Incestuous sweetes betweene ’em.
1694. trans. Milton’s Lett. State, Wks. 1738, II. 175. Your Lordships … who … enjoy the sweets of Peace both at home and abroad.
1697. Dryden, Æneid, XI. 417. The Gods have envy’d me the sweets of Life.
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, III. vi. Surfeited with the sweets of marriage, or disgusted by its bitters.
1826. F. Reynolds, Life & Times, II. 436. Being now compelled daily, to taste more and more of the sweets of management.
1858. R. S. Surtees, Ask Mamma, xlv. 200. Mr. Bankhead, knowing the sweets of office, again aspired to high places.
1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxf., x. The run … up to town to … taste some of the sweets of the season.
b. Contrasted with sweat.
1588. Kyd, Househ. Philos., Index, Wks. (1901), 236. Gaine purchased with sweat or sweete.
1607. Hieron, Wks., I. 397. We haue heard hitherto of the sweat, now let vs heare the sweet of religion.
1610. Mason, Turke, V. i. Ere we had relisht the sweete of her sweete [sic], that is the fruit of her labors.
1667. Flavel, Saint Indeed (1754), 129. He that will not have the sweat, must not expect the sweet of religion.
1670. Ray, Prov., 146. No sweet without some sweat.
4. A beloved person, darling, sweetheart. (Cf. SWEET a. 8 c.)
In ME. verse that swete is freq. used conventionally.
13[?]. Guy Warw. (A.), 4578. No y no loued non bot þat swete.
c. 1369. Chaucer, Dethe Blaunche, 832. Hyt was my swete ryght al hir selve.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 10567. Myche sorow hade his Syre the sun to behold, And oft swonyt that swete, & in swyme felle.
c. 1480. Henryson, Mor. Fab., Cock & Fox, vii. At his end I did my besie curis To hald his heid … Syne at the last, the sweit swelt in my arme.
1591. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., III. iii. 162. Bid my Sweete prepare to chide.
1640. trans. Verdere’s Rom. of Rom., III. 66. Among the which [gentlewomen] perceiving my Claristea (so is this inexorable sweet named) to be one.
1664. Butler, Hud., II. I. 394. This made the beauteous Queen of Crete To take a Town-Bull for her Sweet.
1703. Rules of Civility, 25. As, for a Governor, speaking of his Wife, to say,… My Sweet is the most prudent.
1855. Tennyson, Maud, I. XXII. xi. She is coming, my own, my sweet.
1868. Morris, Earthly Par. (1870), I. I. 289. What feat do ye This eve in honour of my sweet and me?
5. A sweet sound. poet. rare–1.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. xii. 39. Yet wist no creature, whence that heauenly sweet Proceeded.
6. Sweetness of smell, fragrance; pl. sweet odors, scents. or perfumes. poet.
1594. Drayton, Sonn., Amour, xxv. Some muz’d to see the earth enuy the ayre, Which from her lyps exhald refined sweet.
c. 1600. Shaks., Sonn., xcix. More flowers I noted, yet I none could see, But sweet, or culler it had stolne from thee.
1612. Webster, White Devil, II. i. 165. The naturall sweetes Of the Spring-violet.
a. 1718. Prior, 2nd Hymn Callimachus, 50. Perfumes distill their Sweets.
1784. Cowper, Task, I. 444. He … riots in the sweets of ev’ry breeze.
1820. Shelley, Skylark, 55. The scent it gives Makes faint with too much sweet those heavy-wingèd thieves.
1821. Clark, Vill. Minstr., II. 81. Perfuming evening with a luscious sweet.
7. pl. Substances having a sweet smell; fragrant flowers or herbs; † scents, perfumes. Now rare.
1602. Shaks., Ham., V. i. 266. Sweets, to the sweet.
1639–40. in Swayne, Churchw. Acc. Sarum (1896), 320. Sweetes to burne in the Church at Chrismass.
1667. Milton, P. L., V. 294. Through Groves of Myrrhe, And flowring Odours … A Wilderness of Sweets.
1691. Lond. Gaz., No. 2641/4. The Bottle of Sweets [viz. perfume].
1784. Cowper, Task, II. 257. Strew the deck With lavender, and sprinkle liquid sweets.
1837. Ht. Martineau, Soc. Amer., II. 63. The rich carnations and other sweets that bloomed in the garden.
8. attrib. and Comb. (chiefly in sense 1 e), as sweet-box, -maker, -making, -shop, -stall, -standing.
1731–3. P. Shaw, Chem. Lect., xi. (1755), 203. The Art of Sweet-Making might receive a high Degree of Improvement, by using pure Sugar as one general wholesome Sweet, instead of those infinite Mixtures of Honey, Raisins, Syrups, Treacle, Stum, Cyder, &c. wherewith the Sweet-Makers supply the Wine-Coopers.
1879. Miss E. K. Bates, Egypt. Bonds, II. vi. 166. The sweet-shops, with their sugary wares.
1882. East. Daily Press, 17 July, 3. All day long the sweet stalls … were besieged by battalions of the common honey bee.
1896. Westm. Gaz., 18 March, 8/2. A Hoxton sugar-boiler and sweet-maker.
1902. ‘Q,’ White Wolf, 91. He had bought a packet off one of the sweet-standings.
