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.
| 1611 Cotgr., Amer-doux, a bitter-sweet apple. 1633 Rowley Match Midn. in O. Pl. VIII. 373 (N.) Till then adieu, you bitter-sweet one. 1641 Maisterton Serm. 18 Bitter-sweet delights, or pleasures mixt with pain. 1749 Fielding Tom Jones v. iii, To compose a draught that might be termed bitter-sweet. 1855 G. 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.
| 1386 Chaucer Can. Yeom. Prol. & T. 325 Vn-to hem it is a bitter-swete. 1627 Feltham Resolves 295 'Tis something like Love, a kinde of bitter-sweet. 1878 Symonds Sonn. M. Angelo xl, A bitter-sweet sways here and there my mind. |
2. A kind of apple.
| 1393 Gower 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. 1483 Cath. Angl. 33 A Bittyrswete, amarimellum, musceum. 1552 Huloet, Apple called a bytter swete, amarimellum. 1727 Bradley 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.)
| 1568 Turner Herbal iii. 2. 1597 Gerard Herbal lviii. 278 Bitter sweete bringeth foorth wooddie stalks as doth the Vine. 1671 Salmon Syn. Med. iii. xxii. 390 Bittersweet helps the Jaundies. 1821 Clare Vill. Minstr. II. 198 Ramping woodbines and blue bitter-sweet. 1882 Times 6 July 10/4 The bitter-sweet is a twining shrub with scarlet berries. |