| 释义 |
bitter-sweet, a. and n.|ˈbɪtəswiːt|
A. adj. Sweet with an admixture or aftertaste of bitterness. fig. agreeable or pleasant with an alloy of pain or unpleasantness.
1611Cotgr., Amer-doux, a bitter-sweet apple. 1633Rowley Match Midn. in O. Pl. VIII. 373 (N.) Till then adieu, you bitter-sweet one. 1641Maisterton Serm. 18 Bitter-sweet delights, or pleasures mixt with pain. 1749Fielding Tom Jones v. iii, To compose a draught that might be termed bitter-sweet. 1855G. Brimley Ess. 92 It awakes all the fountains of bitter-sweet memory.
B. n.
1. A thing which is bitter-sweet; sweetness or pleasure alloyed with bitterness.
1386Chaucer Can. Yeom. Prol. & T. 325 Vn-to hem it is a bitter-swete. 1627Feltham Resolves 295 'Tis something like Love, a kinde of bitter-sweet. 1878Symonds Sonn. M. Angelo xl, A bitter-sweet sways here and there my mind.
2. A kind of apple.
1393Gower Conf. III. 281 Lich unto the bitter swete, For though it thenke a man first swete, He shall well felen ate laste, That it is soure. 1483Cath. Angl. 33 A Bittyrswete, amarimellum, musceum. 1552Huloet, Apple called a bytter swete, amarimellum. 1727Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Cyder, The best sort of Cyder..made of..the Bitter-sweet.
3. Herb. The Woody Nightshade, Solanum Dulcamara, a common shrubling plant in Britain. (A translation by Turner of the med.Latin name.)
1568Turner Herbal iii. 2. 1597 Gerard Herbal lviii. 278 Bitter sweete bringeth foorth wooddie stalks as doth the Vine. 1671Salmon Syn. Med. iii. xxii. 390 Bittersweet helps the Jaundies. 1821Clare Vill. Minstr. II. 198 Ramping woodbines and blue bitter-sweet. 1882Times 6 July 10/4 The bitter-sweet is a twining shrub with scarlet berries. |