v. [f. SWEET a. + -EN5.]
1. trans. a. To make sweet to the taste; esp. to add sugar or other sweet substance to (food or drink) so as to impart a sweet flavor; also absol.
1552. Huloet, Sweten or make swete, dulco.
1597. Shaks., Lover’s Compl., 272. Loues armes are peace,… And sweetens in the suffring pangues it beares, The Alloes of all forces.
1665. Boyle, Occas. Refl., I. IV. iv. (1848), 68. The Fruit … being neither sweetned nor concocted by Maturity.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 69, ¶ 4. The Infusion of a China Plant sweetned with the Pith of an Indian Cane.
1747–96. Mrs. Glasse, Cookery, xiv. 210. Add half a pint of white wine, and sweeten to your palate.
a. 1777. in Jrnl. Friends’ Hist. Soc., Oct. (1911), 185. Sweeten it to your taste and put in a Quarter of a pound of plimpd Currants.
1833. Ht. Martineau, Briery Creek, iii. 60. To get something to sweeten my husband’s today with.
1883. Cassell’s Dict. Cookery, 771/2. Rose Custard. Boil a pint of good milk,… sweeten to taste, adding some essence of rose.
b. To make sweet to the smell; to fill or imbue with fragrance.
a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia, II. (1912), 229. The world the garden is, she is the flower That sweetens all the place.
1611. Shaks., Cymb., IV. ii. 220. With fayrest Flowers … I’le sweeten thy sad graue.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett. (1655), II. 34. This perfume … hath ascended to my brain, and sweetned all the cells thereof.
1867. O. W. Holmes, Pages fr. Old Vol. Life, v. (1891). 153. The azalea, wild honeysuckle, is sweetening the roadsides.
2. To free from offensive taste or smell; to render fresh; to free from taint, purify, bring into a wholesome condition.
1599. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Rev., Induct. I would thou hadst some sugar candied to sweeten thy mouth.
1605. Shaks., Macb., V. i. 57. Heere’s the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Ibid. (1611), Wint. T., II. i. 156. There’s not a graine of it, the face to sweeten Of the whole dungy-earth.
1675. South, Serm., Judg. viii. 34–5 (1697), I. 514. The Sea swallows them [sc. rivers of fresh water] all, but is not at all changed, or sweetned, by them.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 16, ¶ 2. The one might be employ’d in healing those Blotches and Tumours which break out in the Body, while the other is sweetning the Blood and rectifying the Constitution.
1722. De Foe, Plague (Rtldg.), 307. Measures for airing and sweetning their Houses.
1794. R. J. Sulivan, View Nat., I. 287. Fixed air most assuredly has the power of sweetening the putrid effluvium.
3. To make sweet to the ear; to impart a pleasant sound to.
1578. H. Wotton, Courtlie Controv., 90. Mine aduersary (who as the crafty fowler sweeteneth his voice to deceiue).
c. 1618. Moryson, Itin., IV. IV. iii. (1903), 377. The language of the Netherlanders is a Dialect of the German toung, but sweetned with the leuity of the French toung.
1754. Mrs. Radcliffe, Myst. Udolpho, xxxvi. The horns, placed in a distant part of the woods where an echo sweetened and prolonged their melancholy tones, broke softly on the stillness of the scene.
4. To make pleasant or agreeable; sometimes, to make more pleasant, add to the sweetness of.
a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia, II. (1912), 214. One was the Prince Plangus (whose name was sweetened by your breath, peerlesse Ladie, when the last daie it pleased you to mention him unto me).
1597. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. lxxxi. § 2. That comfort which sweetneth life to them that spend it in these trauayles vpon their owne.
a. 1601. ? Marston, Pasquil & Kath. (1878), Introd. 19. His industrie should sweat To sweeten your delights.
1641. J. Jackson, True Evang. T., I. 5. The whole sentence is sweetned with a continued allegory.
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 471, ¶ 11. The Influence of Hope in general sweetens Life.
1742. Gray, Eton, 34. Graver hours that bring constraint To sweeten liberty.
1857. Ruskin, Pol. Econ. Art, I. xiv. 21. All acts and services were … to be sweetened by brotherly concord.
1888. Miss Braddon, Fatal Three, I. iv. The home ties and tender associations which sweeten other lives were unknown to her.
with advs. 1594. Marlowe & Nashe, Dido, I. i. Venus Swannes shall shed their siluer downe, To sweeten out the slumbers of thy bed.
1611. B. Jonson, Catiline, II. i. I would have my love Angry sometimes, to sweeten off the rest Of her behaviour.
a. 1644. Quarles, Sol. Recant., Sol. ix. 75. Goe, sweeten up thy labours and thy life with fresh delights. Ibid., x. 26. She will … direct thy ways In sacred Ethicks, sweetning out thy days With season’d Knowledge.
5. To make less unpleasant or painful; to alleviate, lighten, mitigate.
a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia, II. (1912), 155. She the sweetnesse of my harte, even sweetning the death, which her sweetnesse drew upon me.
1598. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. ii. I. Ark, 338. Thus Noah sweetens his Captivity, Beguiles the time, and charms his misery.
1622. Peacham, Compl. Gentl., x. 78. To sweeten your seuerer studies, by this time vouchsafe Poetry your respect.
1682. Mrs. Behn, Round-heads, IV. ii. This mighty pleasure comes A propos To sweaten all the heavy toyls of empire.
1706. Art of Painting (1744), 75. He us’d to sing to himself to sweeten his labour.
1844. Kinglake, Eöthen, xviii. The [burial] ground … has nothing to sweeten melancholy.
1870. J. H. Newman, Gram. Assent, II. x. 396. Hope of future good, as we know, sweetens all suffering.
b. To make less harsh, offensive, or objectionable; to soften, palliate, extenuate. Now rare or Obs.
1635. in Foster, Crt. Min. E. Ind. Comp. (1907), 115. Wherein hee shall find any harsh or bitter language, to sweeten the same in a more mild and gentle phrase.
1665. J. Webb, Stone-Heng (1725), 10. Learned Men have usually extenuated and sweetned the Failures and Mistakes of others.
1700. Rycaut, Hist. Turks, III. 333. He endeavoured to sweeten the matter, and render the case as plausible as might be.
6. With personal object (a person, or his mind, temper, etc.)
a. To produce a pleasant disposition in; to make gracious, mild, or kind; to refine.
1561. T. Hoby, trans. Castiglione’s Courtyer, II. (1577), H iij. Those sightes sweeten the mindes of the hearers.
a. 1628. Preston, Saints Daily Exerc. (1629), 138. It sweetens his spirit, it makes him more gracious.
1662. Stillingfl., Orig. Sacræ, II. iv. § 7. Rather to transport men beyond the power of their reason, then to compose and sweeten it.
1706. Stanhope, Paraphr., III. 31. Though it be the very End of this Religion to correct and sweeten the Tempers of Men.
1867. Trollope, Chron. Barset, II. lvi. 123. [Her] temper … was not sweetened by her husband’s very uncivil reference to her sex.
1883. H. Drummond, Nat. Law in Spir. W. (1884), 192. He whose spirit is purified and sweetened becomes proof against these germs of sin.
b. To make things pleasant for, relieve, comfort, soothe, gratify. Now rare or Obs.
1647. May, Hist. Parl., I. vii. 76. [They] would still take all harsh, distastefull things, upon themselves, to cleare, to sweeten their Master.
1652. Heylin, Cosmogr., IV. 112. A Crown being sent him by King Iames with many other rich presents, the better to sweeten and oblige him.
1666. Bunyan, Grace Abound., § 202. Something … which, with this Text, did sweeten my heart.
1833. Tennyson, Dream Fair Wom., lix. The kiss he gave me, ere I fell, Sweetens the spirit still.
c. To free from bitter or angry feeling; to mollify, appease. Now rare or Obs.
1657. Sparrow, Bk. Com. Prayer (1661), Pref. He will perhaps be so sweetned as … to pardon those who [etc.].
1691. trans. d’Emiliane’s Frauds Rom. Monks, 392. The Abbot having heard what they had to say, endeavour’d what he could to sweeten them,… but all this did but incense them the more.
1693. Mem. Cnt. Teckely, II. 124. The Emperor to sweeten the People, restor’d the Confiscated Goods.
1714. Budgell, trans. Theophrastus, i. 6. He redoubles his Professions of Friendship, and sweetens him out of his Resentments.
7. To persuade by flattery or gifts; to cajole; to decoy, take in; to bribe. (Cf. SWEETENER 3.) Now only slang or dial.
1594. R. Carew, Huarte’s Exam. Wits, xiii. (1596), 202. With his lips he sweetneth, and in his heart he betraieth thee.
1623. in Impeachm. Dk. Buckhm. (Camden), 72. What somme wilbe fitt … to sweeten him for their future occasions.
1664. Pepys, Diary, 16 June. The talke … is … that the Holland Embassador here do endeavour to sweeten us with fair words.
1678. [? Winstanley], Four for a Penny, 8. Which Species of Wheedling in Terms of their [sc. the Bum-bailiffs’] Art is called Sweeten and Pinch.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, To Sweeten, to decoy, draw in.
1821. Life D. Haggart (ed. 2), 61. We went to jail to see the boy, and sweetened the toping cove [= hangman] with plenty of budge [= drink].
1872. J. Hartley, Yorks. Ditties, Ser. II. 96. All seekin’ for orders an’ jobs An’ sweetenin th’ sarvents wi’ tips.
8. In various technical uses: To bring to the desired quality or condition. a. To make pliable; to cause to work smoothly or easily.
1607. Markham, Caval., II. iv. (1617), 51. This [smooth] Cannon ordreth and sweetneth the Horses mouth.
1898. Kipling, Day’s Work, 74. Every inch of her [sc. a ship] has to be livened up and made to work wi’ its neighbour—sweetenin’ her, we call it, technically.
b. Painting and Drawing. To free from harshness, soften (a tint, line, etc.).
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 152/2. Sweeten your Shaddow, is to breath on the Glass, and strike it lightly over with the Washer Brush.
1695. Dryden, trans. Dufresnoy’s Art Paint., lxx. § 530. Correggio has made his Memory immortal … by sweetning his Lights and Shadows, and melting them into each other so happily, that they are even imperceptible.
c. 1790. Imison, Sch. Art, II. 62. Sweeten that part with the finger as little as possible.
1873. E. Spon, Workshop Receipts, Ser. I. 100/2. The chief use of the badger tool is to soften or sweeten broad tints.
c. To render (soil) mellow and fertile.
1733. W. Ellis, Chiltern & Vale Farm., 36. This sort of Ploughing sweetens the Ground better than bouting.
1842. Penny Cycl., XXIII. 313/2. The system of fallowing to clean the land, and to ‘sweeten’ it, as old farmers say.
1851. B’ham & Midl. Gardeners’ Mag., April, 30. Many of the little growers in the North … were compelled to cleanse and sweeten their soils for Carnations by baking them in small ovens.
d. To neutralize (an acid) by means of an alkali.
[1681, etc., implied in SWEETENER 1 b].
1885. Hummel, Dyeing Textile Fabrics, v. 83. Another plan to avoid tendering, is to let the goods steep in a weak soda-ash solution for a short time…. This is termed ‘sweetening’ the goods.
9. slang. a. Cards. To increase the stakes; esp. at poker, to increase the stakes in a pot that has not been opened. b. To bid at an auction merely in order to raise the price. c. Finance. To increase the collateral of a loan by adding further securities.
1889. Anaconda (Mont.) Standard, 4 Oct., 6/3. There were three pat flushes [in the poker game] to sweeten the pot before the draw.
1896. [see SWEETENING vbl. sb. 1 d].
1903. Farmer & Henley, Slang, Sweeten,… To contribute to the pool. Hence Sweetening = money paid into the pool or kitty.
1904. [see SWEETENER 3 b].
1910. Encycl. Brit., XXI. 901/1. Sweeten, chipping to a jack-pot after a failure to open.
10. intr. To become sweet (in various senses).
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 325. Where a waspe … hath bitten, in a Grape, or any Fruit, it will sweeten hastily.
1765. Museum Rust., IV. 178. Those lands which have that bitterness are several years a sweetening.
1794. M‘Phail, Treat. Cucumber, 73. When frames are new painted, they should be suffered to lie and sweeten for some time.
1840. P. Parley’s Ann., I. 173. The various articles of wearing apparel, hung out to dry and sweeten.
1851. T. T. Lynch, Unaddr. Lett., iv., in Lett. to Scattered (1872), 184. Papa … laughed, and said, George was coming on; he would sweeten by and by.
1858. Glenny, Gard. Every-day Bk., 163/1. The soil laid in a heap to sweeten.
