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. s[ae]tr, s[oe]tr, 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.

2. Pleasing to the smell; fragrant; redolent; balmy; as, a sweet rose; sweet odor; sweet incense.

The breath of these flowers is sweet to me. --Longfellow.

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.

To make his English sweet upon his tongue. --Chaucer.

A voice sweet, tremulous, but powerful. --Hawthorne.

4. Pleasing to the eye; beautiful; mild and attractive; fair; as, a sweet face; a sweet color or complexion.

Sweet interchange Of hill and valley, rivers, woods, and plains. --Milton.

5. Fresh; not salt or brackish; as, sweet water. --Bacon.

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.

7. Plaesing to the mind; mild; gentle; calm; amiable; winning; presuasive; as, sweet manners.

Canst thou bind the sweet influence of Pleiades? --Job xxxviii. 31.

Mildness and sweet reasonableness is the one established rule of Christian working. --M. Arnold.

Note: Sweet is often used in the formation of self-explaining compounds; as, sweet-blossomed, sweet-featured, sweet-smelling, sweet-tempered, sweet-toned, etc.

Sweet alyssum. (Bot.) See Alyssum.

Sweet apple. (Bot.)
   (a) Any apple of sweet flavor.
   (b) See Sweet-top.

Sweet bay. (Bot.)
   (a) The laurel (laurus nobilis).
   (b) Swamp sassafras.

Sweet calabash (Bot.), a plant of the genus Passiflora (P. 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 (M. 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, or 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 (Zo["o]l.), 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 (C. 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) (Zo["o]l.) The willow warbler.
   (c) (Zo["o]l.) 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.

Syn: Sugary; saccharine; dulcet; luscious.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
 

Corn \Corn\, n. [AS. corn; akin to OS. korn, D. koren, G., Dan., Sw., & Icel. korn, Goth. ka['u]rn, L. granum, Russ. zerno. Cf. Grain, Kernel.]

1. A single seed of certain plants, as wheat, rye, barley, and maize; a grain.

2. The various farinaceous grains of the cereal grasses used for food, as wheat, rye, barley, maize, oats.

Note: In Scotland, corn is generally restricted to oats, in the United States, to maize, or Indian corn, of which there are several kinds; as, yellow corn, which grows chiefly in the Northern States, and is yellow when ripe; white or southern corn, which grows to a great height, and has long white kernels; sweet corn, comprising a number of sweet and tender varieties, grown chiefly at the North, some of which have kernels that wrinkle when ripe and dry; pop corn, any small variety, used for popping.

3. The plants which produce corn, when growing in the field; the stalks and ears, or the stalks, ears, and seeds, after reaping and before thrashing.

In one night, ere glimpse of morn, His shadowy flail had thrashed the corn. --Milton.

4. A small, hard particle; a grain. ``Corn of sand.'' --Bp. Hall. ``A corn of powder.'' --Beau. & Fl.

Corn ball, a ball of popped corn stuck together with soft candy from molasses or sugar.

Corn bread, bread made of Indian meal.

Corn cake, a kind of corn bread; johnny cake; hoecake.

Corn cockle (Bot.), a weed (Agrostemma or Lychnis Githago), having bright flowers, common in grain fields.

Corn flag (Bot.), a plant of the genus Gladiolus; -- called also sword lily.

Corn fly. (Zo["o]l.)
   (a) A small fly which, in the larval state, is injurious to grain, living in the stalk, and causing the disease called ``gout,'' on account of the swelled joints. The common European species is Chlorops t[ae]niopus.
   (b) A small fly (Anthomyia ze) whose larva or maggot destroys seed corn after it has been planted.

Corn fritter, a fritter having green Indian corn mixed through its batter. [U. S.]

Corn laws, laws regulating trade in corn, especially those in force in Great Britain till 1846, prohibiting the importation of foreign grain for home consumption, except when the price rose above a certain rate.

Corn marigold. (Bot.) See under Marigold.

Corn oyster, a fritter containing grated green Indian corn and butter, the combined taste resembling that of oysters. [U.S.]

Corn parsley (Bot.), a plant of the parsley genus (Petroselinum segetum), a weed in parts of Europe and Asia.

Corn popper, a utensil used in popping corn.

Corn poppy (Bot.), the red poppy (Papaver Rh[oe]as), common in European cornfields; -- also called corn rose.

Corn rent, rent paid in corn.

Corn rose. See Corn poppy.

Corn salad (Bot.), a name given to several species of Valerianella, annual herbs sometimes used for salad. V. olitoria is also called lamb's lettuce.

Corn stone, red limestone. [Prov. Eng.]

Corn violet (Bot.), a species of Campanula.

Corn weevil. (Zo["o]l.)
   (a) A small weevil which causes great injury to grain.
   (b) In America, a weevil (Sphenophorus ze[ae]) which attacks the stalk of maize near the root, often doing great damage. See Grain weevil, under Weevil.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)