sweeten
See also: Sweeten
English
Etymology
From sweet + -en.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈswiːtən/, /ˈswiːʔn̩/
,Audio (US) (file) Audio 2 (US) (file) - Rhymes: -iːtən
- Hyphenation: sweet‧en
Verb
sweeten (third-person singular simple present sweetens, present participle sweetening, simple past and past participle sweetened)
- (transitive) To make sweet to the taste.
- to sweeten tea
- (transitive) To make (more) pleasant or to the mind or feelings.
- to sweeten life
- to sweeten friendship
- (transitive) To make mild or kind; to soften.
- to sweeten the temper
- (transitive) To make less painful or laborious; to relieve.
- to sweeten the cares of life
- 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 1029642537, page 99:
- Our God to bless out home delights, / And sweeten every secret tear:— [...]
- (transitive) To soften to the eye; to make delicate.
- 1695, John Dryden, De Arte Graphica
- 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
- (transitive) To make pure and salubrious by destroying noxious matter.
- to sweeten rooms or apartments that have been infected
- to sweeten the air
- (transitive) To make warm and fertile.
- to dry and sweeten soils
- (transitive) To restore to purity; to free from taint.
- to sweeten water, butter, or meat
- (transitive) To make more attractive; said of offers in negotiations.
- to sweeten the deal by increasing the price offered
- (intransitive) To become sweet.
- (music, transitive) To supplement (a composition) with additional instruments, especially strings.
- 2011, Russell Dean Vines, Composing Digital Music For Dummies (page 326)
- 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.
- 2014, Mellonee V. Burnim, Portia K. Maultsby, African American Music: An Introduction (page 259)
- 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; […]
- 2011, Russell Dean Vines, Composing Digital Music For Dummies (page 326)
Antonyms
- (to make warm and fertile): sour
Translations
to make sweet to the taste
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to make more attractive; said of offers in negotiations
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to become sweet
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