| 释义 |
sweetener|ˈswiːt(ə)nə(r)|
[f. as prec. + -er1.]
1. a. That which makes something sweet to the taste or other sense; something that imparts a sweet flavour.
1719Quincy Compl. Disp. 96/1 All those which usually pass for Sweetners. 1884S. Dowell Taxation v. ii. I. 132 Sugar..began to displace honey as a sweetener for food.
b. An alkali or similar substance used to neutralize acidity; something which renders soil rich and mellow.
1681tr. Belon's Myst. Physick Introd. 34 Alcalies and other Sweetners should be employed. a1699Temple Misc. iii. Health & Long Life Wks. 1720 I. 286 Powder of Crabs-Eyes and Claws, and burnt Egg-Shells are often prescribed as Sweetners of any sharp Humours. 1712Steele Spect. No. 547 ⁋10, I..having a Constitution which naturally abounds with Acids..have found it a most excellent Sweetner of the Blood. 1765Museum Rust. IV. xl. 178 During that year, one may sow either oats, corn, peas or beans, or any sweetener. 1794Vancouver Agric. Cambridge 201 The plough is..used with great propriety, as a sweetener of the soil.
c. Painting. A brush used for ‘sweetening’: see sweeten 8 b.
1859Gullick & Timbs Painting 198 Most artists also use a brush made of badger's hair. It bears the significant names of ‘softener’ and ‘sweetener’, and is used to blend the colours and remove ‘edginess’, by being swept to and fro over them while freshly laid.
2. a. A person or (more usually) a thing that renders something pleasant or agreeable (or mitigates its unpleasantness).
a1649Drummond of Hawthornden Madrigals, A Kiss, This Sweetner of Annoyes, This Nectare of the Gods. 1670Brooks Wks. (1867) VI. 368 The communion with God, that is the life of your graces, the sweetener of all ordinances. 1710Norris Chr. Prud. viii. 350 Wisdom..the great Up⁓holder and Sweetner of all Society. 1742Blair Grave 89 Friendship!.. Sweetner of Life! and Solder of Society! 1865Mrs. Gaskell Wives & Dau. l, Molly stood by,..and only kept where she was by the hope of coming in as sweetener or peacemaker. 1871Smiles Charac. ix. (1876) 260 Grace is a sweetener and embellisher of life.
†b. One who softens, palliates, or extenuates; a flatterer, cajoler. Obs.
1724Swift Drapier's Lett. vii. Wks. 1755 V. ii. 150 Those softners, sweetners, compounders, and expedient-mongers. 1728Capt. G. Carleton's Mem. 202 When any Officers had asserted the Falsity of those Inventions (as they all did, except a military Sweetner or two). 1729Swift Poems, Libel on Delany 154 You, who till your fortune's made Must be a sweetener by your trade, Should swear he never meant us ill.
c. Something that produces (or restores) pleasant feeling; something pleasing, gratifying, or comforting; also, a means of persuasion, an inducement (cf. next sense); a bribe; a concession or appeasement (esp. in politics, business, etc.). Cf. douceur 3.
1741Middleton Cicero (1742) II. viii. 235 A sweetner for my Cato. 1754E. Farneworth tr. Life Sextus V, iv. (1766) 190 This was what the gamesters call a Sweetner, to draw them on, and made them labour more earnestly. 1782S. Crisp Let. to Mme. D'Arblay 5 Apr., And now, Fanny, after this severe lecturing, I shall give you a sweetener to make it up with you. 1829P. Egan Boxiana 2nd Ser. II. 415 As a reward, or sweetener for his numerous defeats,..the above unexpected victory has put Sampson once more into good humour with himself. 1847A. Harris Settlers & Convicts vi. 89 The handsome ‘sweeteners’ (bribes) which old D―'s profits enabled him to give the constables. 1903G. H. Lorimer Lett. Self-made Merch. xiii. 186, I met him coming in from his route looking glum; so I handed him fifty dollars as a little sweetener. 1955Times 24 May 16/2, I suggest that what you got from Carroll Levis was a sweetener or a bribe. 1959Economist 28 Mar. 1176/1 The main attraction of the Kennedy Bill is its ‘sweeteners’ in the form of amendments, made to the order of the labour leaders, to the basic Taft-Hartley Act regulating trade union activities. 1960Wall St. Jrnl. 26 Sept. 11 The State Department responded..by permitting the imports but removing the sweetener—the premium that other sugar suppliers enjoy in their sales to the U.S. 1975Times 10 Apr. 8/2 Mr Nixon used the threat of renewed bombing as a sweetener to get the reluctant President Thieu to sign the agreements. 1979G. Hammond Dead Game x. 138 Everybody gives ‘sweeteners’ of some kind or another, even if it's only a bottle at Christmas.
3. slang.
a. A decoy, cheat, sharper. ? Obs.
a1700B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Cog,..the Money..the Sweetners drop to draw in the Bubbles. Ibid., Sweetners, Guinea-Droppers, Cheats, Sharpers. 1707Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) VI. 223 Being one of the gang, and a sweetner, he goeing to the innocent persons to perswade them to make up the same by giving money. 1714Lond. Gaz. No. 5272/9 Whereas divers Persons, commonly called Sweetners, have cheated many People of considerable Sums of Mony, by plausible Pretences.
b. One who bids at an auction merely in order to raise the price.
1823in Spirit of Public Jrnls. (1825) 508 Here the music of bidding grows loud and more loud—Here the sweetener is conning his hints for the day. 1865Slang Dict. 1904Daily Chron. 23 Sept. 6/4 ‘Safe bidding’ or ‘sweetening’ at an auction sale was a fraud on the public. Most men bidding at an auction trusted the other bidders. A ‘sweetener’ was a man who was not ‘playing the game’. |