sweet water, sweet-water
1. (as two words) Fresh water (see sweet a. 3 b); attrib. (usually with hyphen or as one word), living in or consisting of fresh water.
| 1608 Topsell Serpents 287 There was a magicall..vse of these Sweete-water-Tortoyces agaynst Hayle. 1861 Chambers' Encycl. II. 668/2 [Catabrosa] is sometimes called Whorl Grass, and sometimes Sweet Water Grass. 1872 Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 11 Sweet-water springs. 1895 P. Hemingway Out of Egypt ii. 149 A party of women washing linen in some sweetwater canal. |
† 2. (as two words, or with hyphen) A sweet-smelling liquid preparation; a liquid perfume or scent. Obs.
| 1544 T. Phaer Regim. Lyfe (1560) M viij b, As concernynge sweete waters to sprinkle upon your clothes. 1588 Shakes. Tit. A. ii. iv. 6 Call for sweet water, wash thy hands. 1688 Holme Armoury iii.398/1 A small Chafer (which they [sc. barbers] use to carry about with them..) to carry their sweet water..in. 1769 Lady M. Coke Jrnl. 27 Nov., All sorts of sweet waters & fine pomatums. 1859 Habits of Gd. Society ii. (new ed.) 125 Banish..every essence, cosmetic, or sweet-water from your toilet. |
b. Technically applied to sweet liquids obtained as by-products in certain manufactures.
| 1885 W. L. Carpenter Soap, Candles, etc. xiii. 295 (Glycerin) The whole is then blown out into a tank, and the ‘sweet-water’ is run off. 1910 Encycl. Brit. V. 178/2 (Candles) On standing the product separates into two layers—‘sweet water’ containing glycerin below, and the fatty acids with a certain amount of lime soap above. |
3. (with hyphen, or as one word) A variety of white grape, of specially sweet flavour.
| 1786 Abercrombie Arrangem. in Gard. Assist. 15 Grapes... White sweet-water. Black sweet-water. 1848 Lowell Biglow P. Ser. i. Introd., He affirmed that..he had never seen a sweet-water on a trellis growing so fairly..as a fox⁓grape over a scrub-oak in a swamp. 1865 Sala Diary in Amer. II. v. 159 The black Hambros, or the juicy sweet⁓waters, or the fragrant muscatels. |