usually in pl. sweeties. orig. and chiefly Sc. Also sweety. [f. SWEET a. + -IE. Earlier than SWEET sb. 1 e (cf. SWEEPY sb. and SWEEP sb. 32).] A sweetmeat, lollipop. Also, sweet cake or the like.
1721. Ramsay, Conclusion, 22. To wrap Up snuff, or sweeties, in a shap.
1824. W. Havergal, Lett., in Life (1882), 55. Baby … was satisfied with a bit of sweetie.
1860. Thackeray, Round. Papers, Christmas Tree. Instead of finding bonbons or sweeties in the packets which we pluck off the boughs.
1874. Christina Rossetti, Speaking Likenesses, 73. Burnt almonds, chocolate, and ‘sweeties’ of every flavour.
1899. Crockett, Kit Kennedy, 25. She gied me a’ the sweeties she had.
b. attrib.
1790. D. Morison, Poems, 18. Rob tak’s them to a sweety bench Where a’ thing’s fit for eatin’.
1808. Jamieson, s.v. Yule, What the vulgar call a sweetie-skon, or a loaf enriched with raisins, currants, and spiceries.
1813. G. Robertson, Agric. Surv. Kincard., 406. The sweety-men, or confectioners.
1821. Blackw. Mag., VIII. 423. The Sweety-wife … Spreads out her sweeties, and adjusts her scale.
1837. Lockhart, Scott, I. vii. 224. A ‘sweetie wife’ (that is, an itinerant vender of gingerbread, &c.).
1893. Baring-Gould, Cheap Jack Zita, I. 51. Money … for sweetie stuff.
1895. Crockett, Bog-Myrtle & Peat, IV. ii. (1899), 332. The row of sweetie-bottles.
