sweeten
verb/ˈswiːtən/ · [ˈswiːtn̩]
Etymology From sweet + -en. Eclipsed non-native Middle English doucen and endoucen, borrowed from Old French adoucir and endoucir (“to sweeten”).
12 senses
- 1To make sweet to the taste.
- 2To make (more) pleasant or to the mind or feelings.
- 3To make mild or kind; to soften.
- 4To make less painful or laborious; to relieve.
- 5To soften to the eye; to make delicate.
- 6To make pure and healthful by destroying noxious matter.
- 7To make warm and fertile.
- 8To raise the pH of (a soil) by adding alkali.
- 9To restore to purity; to free from taint.
- 10To make more attractive; said of offers in negotiations.
- 11To become sweet.
- 12To supplement (a composition) with additional…
1
To make sweet to the taste.
- to sweeten tea
2
To make (more) pleasant or to the mind or feelings.
- to sweeten life
- to sweeten friendship
3
To make mild or kind; to soften.
- to sweeten the temper
4
To make less painful or laborious; to relieve.
- to sweeten the cares of life
- Our God to bless out home delights, / And sweeten every secret tear:— [...]1827, [John Keble], “Last Sunday after Trinity”, in The Christian Year: Thoughts in Verse for the Sundays and Holydays throughout the Year, volume II, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] [B]y W. Baxter, for J. Parker; and C[harles] and J[ohn] Rivington, […], →OCLC, page 99:
5
To soften to the eye; to make delicate.
- Correggio has made his memory immortal by the strength he has given to his figures, and by sweetening his lights and shadows, and melting them into each other.1695, John Dryden, De Arte Graphica:
6
To make pure and healthful by destroying noxious matter.
- to sweeten rooms or apartments that have been infected
- to sweeten the air
7
To make warm and fertile.
- to dry and sweeten soils
8
Agriculture, Business, Lifestyle To raise the pH of (a soil) by adding alkali.
- [T]hey had prepared the garden carefully, plowing and sweetening the dirt with fireplace ashes and manure from the barn[.]1997, Charles Frazier, Cold Mountain, London: Hodder and Stoughton, page 128:
9
To restore to purity; to free from taint.
- to sweeten water, butter, or meat
10
To make more attractive; said of offers in negotiations.
- to sweeten the deal by increasing the price offered
11
To become sweet.
12
Entertainment, Lifestyle, Music To supplement (a composition) with additional instruments, especially strings.
- In most popular music the bowed strings usually play long, sustained, sweeping parts, and are sometimes added to a vocal track later in a process known as sweetening.2011, Russell Dean Vines, Composing Digital Music For Dummies, page 326:
- Rather than employ strings to “sweeten” the songs, Motown's arrangements used strings as a timbral layer, in conjunction with syncopated horn lines, for a fuller sound; […]2014, Mellonee V. Burnim, Portia K. Maultsby, African American Music: An Introduction, page 259:
- Antonyms
- sour