sweet

From Middle English sweete, swete, from Old English swēte (“sweet”), from Proto-Germanic *swōtuz (“sweet”), from Proto-Indo-European *swéh₂dus (“sweet”).

Cognate with Scots sweit, North Frisian sweete, West Frisian swiet, Low German sööt, Dutch zoet, German süß, Danish sød, Swedish söt, Norwegian søt, Latin suāvis (“sweet”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /swiːt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /swit/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /swiːt/

• Audio (US)

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• Audio

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• Rhymes: -iːt
• Homophone: suite

sweet (comparative sweeter, superlative sweetest)

1. Having a pleasant taste, especially one relating to the basic taste sensation induced by sugar.

   a sweet apple

2. Having a taste of sugar.
   • 2018 May 16, Adam Rogers, Wired, "The Fundamental Nihilism of Yanny vs. Laurel":

     A few types of molecules get sensed by receptors on the tongue. Protons coming off of acids ping receptors for "sour." Sugars get received as "sweet." Bitter, salty, and the proteinaceous flavor umami all set off their own neural cascades.

3. (wine) Retaining a portion of sugar.

   Sweet wines are better dessert wines.

4. Not having a salty taste.

   sweet butter

5. Having a pleasant smell.

   a sweet scent.

   • 1838, Longfellow, "Voices of the Night: The Reaper and the Flowers":

     The breath of these flowers is sweet to me.

6. Not decaying, fermented, rancid, sour, spoiled, or stale.

   sweet milk

7. Having a pleasant sound.

   a sweet tune

   • 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, A Scarlet Letter, Ticknor and Fields, page 135:

     a voice sweet, tremulous, but powerful

8. Having a pleasing disposition.

   a sweet child

9. Having a helpful disposition.

   It was sweet of him to help out.

10. (mineralogy) Free from excessive unwanted substances like acid or sulphur.

    sweet soil

    sweet crude oil

11. (informal) Very pleasing; agreeable.

    The new Lexus was a sweet birthday gift.

    • 14 November 2014, Steven Haliday, Scotland 1-0 Republic of Ireland: Maloney the hero

      GORDON Strachan enjoyed the sweetest of his 16 matches in charge of Scotland so far as his team enhanced their prospects of Euro 2016 qualification with a crucial and deserved victory over Republic of Ireland.

12. (slang) Doing well; in a good or happy position.
    • 2012, John Hoskison, Inside: One Man's Experience of Prison

      "Visit in two days though," said Tommo. "Hang in there mate, got a joey coming, we'll be sweet then."

13. (informal, followed by on) Romantically fixated, enamoured with, fond of

    The attraction was mutual and instant; they were sweet on one another from first sight.

14. (obsolete) Fresh; not salt or brackish.

    sweet water

    • 1826, Francis Bacon, The Works of Francis Bacon, page 66:

      The white of an egg, or blood mingled with salt water, doth gather the saltness and maketh the water sweeter; this may be by adhesion.}}

    • 1821, Robert Thomas, The modern practice of physic, page 713:

      Nothing has been found so effectual for preserving water sweet at sea, during long voyages, as charring the insides of the casks well before they are filled.

15. Pleasing to the eye; beautiful; mild and attractive; fair.

    a sweet face; a sweet colour or complexion

    • 1667, John Milton, Paradise lost (source), Samuel Simmons, page 278:

      Sweet interchange / Of hill and valley, rivers, woods, and plains.

• (having a taste of sugar): saccharine, sugary
• (containing a sweetening ingredient): sugared, sweetened
• (not having a salty taste): fresh, unsalty
• (having a pleasant smell): fragrant, odoriferous, odorous, perfumed, scented, sweet-scented, sweet-smelling
• (not decaying, fermented, rancid, sour, spoiled, or stale): fresh, unfermented, wholesome
• (having a pleasant sound): dulcet, honeyed, mellifluous, mellisonant
• (having a pleasing disposition): cute, lovable, pleasant
• (having a helpful disposition): kind, gracious, helpful, sensitive, thoughtful
• ((informal) very pleasing): rad, awesome, wicked

• (having a pleasant taste): bitter, sour, salty
• (containing a sweetening ingredient): nonsweet, sugarless, unsugared, unsweetened, unsweet
• (of wines: retaining a portion of natural sugar): dry
• (not decaying, fermented, rancid, sour, spoiled, or stale): decaying, fermented, rancid, sour, spoiled, stale
• (not having a salty taste): salty, savoury
• (free from excessive unwanted substances): sour
• ((informal) very pleasing): lame, uncool

• Also used as a positive response to good news or information: They're making a sequel? Ah, sweet!

sweet (comparative more sweet, superlative most sweet)

1. In a sweet manner.
   • 1598, Shakespeare, Love's Labour Lost, Act 1 Scene 1:

     "and, sweet my child, let them be men of good repute and carriage."

     (and, my child, allow them sweetly to be men with good reputations and conduct)

• (in a sweet manner): sweetly

sweet (countable and uncountable, plural sweets)

1. (uncountable) The basic taste sensation induced by sugar.
2. (countable, Britain) A confection made from sugar, or high in sugar content; a candy.
3. (countable, Britain) A food eaten for dessert.

   Can we see the sweet menu, please?

4. Sweetheart; darling.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Ben Jonson

     Wherefore frowns my sweet?

5. (obsolete) That which is sweet or pleasant in odour; a perfume.
   • (Can we date this quote?) John Milton

     a wilderness of sweets

6. (obsolete) Sweetness, delight; something pleasant to the mind or senses.
   • 1613, John Marston, William Barksted, The Insatiate Countess, III.2:

     Fear's fire to fervency, which makes love's sweet prove nectar.

• (sweet taste sensation): See sweetness
• (food that is high in sugar content): bonbon, candy (US), confection, confectionery, lolly (Australia)
• (food eaten for dessert): See dessert

• spoon sweet
• sweet shop / sweetshop

sweet (third-person singular simple present sweets, present participle sweeting, simple past and past participle sweeted)

1. (obsolete or poetic) To sweeten.
   • 1825, John Breckinridge & C.R. Harrison, Western Luminary ... - Volume 1, page 318:

     In size and shape it resembles the heart of a calf, and the interior substance is similar to thick cream, sweeted with fine sugar.

   • 1890, The Cincinnati Lancet-clinic - Volume 63, page 331:

     It might also be given in the form of a mixture — the drug being insoluble in a watery menstruum — suspended by the aid of mucilage and sweeted by any of the various flavoring syrups.

   • 1997, Morag Styles, From the Garden to the Street, →ISBN:

     Bring me now where the warm wind blows, where the grasses sigh, where the sweet-tongued blossom flowers; where the shower, fan soft like a fishermans net thrown through the sweeted air.

   • 2012, Keith Ringkamp, PATIENCE WORTH: A Balm for Every Ill, →ISBN, page 34:

     A sour maketh sweets two-fold sweeted.

• weest, weets

From Old Dutch *swēt, from Proto-Germanic *swait-.

swêet n

1. sweat, perspiration

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

• sweit

• swêten

• Dutch: zweet
• Limburgish: zweit

• “sweet”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
• “sweet”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, 1929