| 释义 |
sweeten, v.|ˈswiːt(ə)n|
[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 flavour; also absol.
1552Huloet, Sweten or make swete, dulco. 1597Shakes. Lover's Compl. 272 Loues armes are peace,..And sweetens in the suffring pangues it beares, The Alloes of all forces. 1665Boyle Occas. Refl. i. iv. iv. (1848) 68 The Fruit..being neither sweetned nor concocted by Maturity. 1711Addison Spect. No. 69 ⁋4 The Infusion of a China Plant sweetned with the Pith of an Indian Cane. 1747–96H. Glasse Cookery xiv. 210 Add half a pint of white wine, and sweeten to your palate. a1777in Jrnl. Friends' Hist. Soc. Oct. (1914) 188 Sweeten it to your taste and put in a Quarter of a pound of plimpd Currants. 1833H. Martineau Briery Creek iii. 60 To get something to sweeten my husband's toddy with. 1883Cassell'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.
a1586Sidney Arcadia ii. (1912) 229 The world the garden is, she is the flower That sweetens all the place. 1611Shakes. Cymb. iv. ii. 220 With fayrest Flowers..I'le sweeten thy sad graue. c1645Howell Lett. (1655) II. 34 This perfume..hath ascended to my brain, and sweetned all the cells thereof. 1867O. 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.
1599B. Jonson Cynthia's Rev. Induct., I would thou hadst some sugar candied to sweeten thy mouth. 1605Shakes. Macb. v. i. 57 Heere's the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. 1611― Wint. T. ii. i. 156 There's not a graine of it, the face to sweeten Of the whole dungy-earth. 1675South 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. 1711Addison 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. 1722De Foe Plague (Rtldg.) 307 Measures for airing and sweetning their Houses. 1794R. 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.
1578H. Wotton Courtlie Controv. 90 Mine aduersary (who as the crafty fowler sweeteneth his voice to deceiue). c1618Moryson 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. 1794Mrs. 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.
a1586Sidney 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). 1597Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. lxxxi. §2 That comfort which sweetneth life to them that spend it in these trauayles vpon their owne. a1601? Marston Pasquil & Kath. (1878) Introd. 19 His industrie should sweat To sweeten your delights. 1641J. Jackson True Evang. T. i. 5 The whole sentence is sweetned with a continued allegory. 1712Addison Spect. No. 471 ⁋11 The Influence of Hope in general sweetens Life. 1742Gray Eton 34 Graver hours that bring constraint To sweeten liberty. 1857Ruskin Pol. Econ. Art i. xiv. 21 All acts and services were..to be sweetened by brotherly concord. 1888M. E. Braddon Fatal Three i. iv, The home ties and tender associations which sweeten other lives were unknown to her.
with advs.1594Marlowe & Nashe Dido i. i, Venus Swannes shall shed their siluer downe, To sweeten out the slumbers of thy bed. 1611B. Jonson Catiline ii. i, I would have my love Angry sometimes, to sweeten off the rest Of her behaviour. a1644Quarles 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. a. To make less unpleasant or painful; to alleviate, lighten, mitigate.
a1586Sidney Arcadia ii. (1912) 155 She the sweetnesse of my harte, even sweetning the death, which her sweetnesse drew upon me. 1598Sylvester Du Bartas ii. ii. i. Ark 338 Thus Noah sweetens his Captivity, Beguiles the time, and charms his misery. 1622Peacham Compl. Gentl. x. 78 To sweeten your seuerer studies, by this time vouchsafe Poetry your respect. 1682A. Behn Round-heads iv. ii, This mighty pleasure comes A propos To sweaten all the heavy toyls of empire. 1706Art of Painting (1744) 75 He us'd to sing to himself to sweeten his labour. 1844Kinglake Eothen xviii, The [burial] ground..has nothing to sweeten melancholy. 1870J. 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.
1635in 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. 1665J. Webb Stone-Heng (1725) 10 Learned Men have usually extenuated and sweetned the Failures and Mistakes of others. 1700Rycaut 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.
1561T. Hoby tr. Castiglione's Courtyer ii. (1577) H iij, Those sightes sweeten the mindes of the hearers. a1628Preston Saints Daily Exerc. (1629) 138 It sweetens his spirit, it makes him more gracious. 1662Stillingfl. Orig. Sacræ ii. iv. §7 Rather to transport men beyond the power of their reason, then to compose and sweeten it. 1706Stanhope Paraphr. III. 31 Though it be the very End of this Religion to correct and sweeten the Tempers of Men. 1867Trollope Chron. Barset II. lvi. 123 [Her] temper..was not sweetened by her husband's very uncivil reference to her sex. 1883H. 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.
1647May Hist. Parl. i. vii. 76 [They] would still take all harsh, distastefull things, upon themselves, to cleare, to sweeten their Master. 1652Heylin Cosmogr. iv. 112 A Crown being sent him by King Iames with many other rich presents, the better to sweeten and oblige him. 1666Bunyan Grace Abound. §202 Something..which, with this Text, did sweeten my heart. 1833Tennyson Dream Fair Women 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.
1657Sparrow Bk. Com. Prayer (1661) Pref., He will perhaps be so sweetned as..to pardon those who [etc.]. 1691tr. 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. 1693Mem. Cnt. Teckely ii. 124 The Emperor to sweeten the People, restor'd the Confiscated Goods. 1714Budgell tr. 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. Also with up. (Cf. sweetener 3.) Now only slang or dial.
1594R. Carew Huarte's Exam. Wits xiii. (1596) 202 With his lips he sweetneth, and in his heart he betraieth thee. 1623in Impeachm. Dk. Buckhm. (Camden) 72 What somme wilbe fitt..to sweeten him for their future occasions. 1664Pepys 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. a1700B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, To Sweeten, to decoy, draw in. 1821Life D. Haggart (ed. 2) 61 We went to jail to see the boy, and sweetened the toping cove [= hangman] with plenty of budge [= drink]. 1872J. Hartley Yorks. Ditties Ser. ii. 96 All seekin' for orders an' jobs An' sweetenin th' sarvents wi' tips. 1875‘Mark Twain’ in Atlantic Monthly Aug. 195/1 Stephen sweetened him up and put him off a week. 1971‘E. Lathen’ Ashes to Ashes x. 99, I know Unger is just trying to sweeten us up... Maybe we should be trying to sweeten him up.
8. In various technical uses: To bring to the desired quality or condition.
a. To make pliable; to cause to work smoothly or easily.
1607Markham Caval. ii. iv. (1617) 51 This [smooth] Cannon ordreth and sweetneth the Horses mouth. 1898Kipling 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.).
1688Holme Armoury iii. 152/2 Sweeten your Shaddow, is to breath on the Glass, and strike it lightly over with the Washer Brush. 1695Dryden tr. 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. c1790J. Imison Sch. Arts II. 62 Sweeten that part with the finger as little as possible. 1873E. 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.
1733W. Ellis Chiltern & Vale Farm. 36 This sort of Ploughing sweetens the Ground better than bouting. 1842Penny Cycl. XXIII. 313/2 The system of fallowing to clean the land, and to ‘sweeten’ it, as old farmers say. 1851B'ham & Midl. Gardeners' Mag. Apr. 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] .1885J. J. 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.
e. Oil Industry. To free (petroleum products) from sulphur or sulphur compounds.
1924Industr. & Engin. Chem. Nov. 1113 Although naphthas and kerosenes have been sweetened by the sodium plumbite method for many years, the process is entirely empirical. 1975W. G. Roberts Quest for Oil (rev. ed.) ix. 92 The lighter distillates, liquid petroleum gas, gasolenes and kerosenes, can be sweetened by simple chemical treatments which either remove the sulphur compounds or turn them into harmless and non-smelly forms.
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.
1896[see sweetening vbl. n. 1 d]. 1903Farmer & Henley Slang, Sweeten,..To contribute to the pool. Hence Sweetening = money paid into the pool or kitty. 1904[see sweetener 3 b]. 1910Encycl. Brit. XXI. 901/1 Sweeten, chipping to a jack-pot after a failure to open.
10. intr. To become sweet (in various senses).
1626Bacon Sylva §325 Where a waspe..hath bitten, in a Grape, or any Fruit, it will sweeten hastily. 1765Museum Rust. IV. 178 Those lands which have that bitterness are several years a sweetening. 1794McPhail Treat. Cucumber 73 When frames are new painted, they should be suffered to lie and sweeten for some time. 1840P. Parley's Ann. I. 173 The various articles of wearing apparel, hung out to dry and sweeten. 1851T. 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. 1858Glenny Gard. Every-day Bk. 163/1 The soil laid in a heap to sweeten. |