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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Sweet marjoram

Sweet \Sweet\, a. [Compar. Sweeter; superl. Sweetest.] [OE. swete, swote, sote, AS. sw[=e]te; akin to OFries. sw[=e]te, OS. sw[=o]ti, D. zoet, G. s["u]ss, OHG. suozi, Icel. s[ae]tr, s[oe]tr, Sw. s["o]t, Dan. s["o]d, Goth. suts, L. suavis, for suadvis, Gr. ?, Skr. sv[=a]du sweet, svad, sv[=a]d, to sweeten. [root]175. Cf. Assuage, Suave, Suasion.]

  1. Having an agreeable taste or flavor such as that of sugar; saccharine; -- opposed to sour and bitter; as, a sweet beverage; sweet fruits; sweet oranges.

  2. Pleasing to the smell; fragrant; redolent; balmy; as, a sweet rose; sweet odor; sweet incense.

    The breath of these flowers is sweet to me.
    --Longfellow.

  3. Pleasing to the ear; soft; melodious; harmonious; as, the sweet notes of a flute or an organ; sweet music; a sweet voice; a sweet singer.

    To make his English sweet upon his tongue.
    --Chaucer.

    A voice sweet, tremulous, but powerful.
    --Hawthorne.

  4. Pleasing to the eye; beautiful; mild and attractive; fair; as, a sweet face; a sweet color or complexion.

    Sweet interchange Of hill and valley, rivers, woods, and plains.
    --Milton.

  5. Fresh; not salt or brackish; as, sweet water.
    --Bacon.

  6. Not changed from a sound or wholesome state. Specifically:

    1. Not sour; as, sweet milk or bread.

    2. Not state; not putrescent or putrid; not rancid; as, sweet butter; sweet meat or fish.

  7. Plaesing to the mind; mild; gentle; calm; amiable; winning; presuasive; as, sweet manners. Canst thou bind the sweet influence of Pleiades? --Job xxxviii. 3

    1. Mildness and sweet reasonableness is the one established rule of Christian working. --M. Arnold. Note: Sweet is often used in the formation of self-explaining compounds; as, sweet-blossomed, sweet-featured, sweet-smelling, sweet-tempered, sweet-toned, etc. Sweet alyssum. (Bot.) See Alyssum. Sweet apple. (Bot.)

      1. Any apple of sweet flavor.

      2. See Sweet-top. Sweet bay. (Bot.)

        1. The laurel ( laurus nobilis).

        2. Swamp sassafras. Sweet calabash (Bot.), a plant of the genus Passiflora ( P. maliformis) growing in the West Indies, and producing a roundish, edible fruit, the size of an apple. Sweet cicely. (Bot.)

          1. Either of the North American plants of the umbelliferous genus Osmorrhiza having aromatic roots and seeds, and white flowers.
            --Gray.

          2. A plant of the genus Myrrhis ( M. odorata) growing in England.

            Sweet calamus, or Sweet cane. (Bot.) Same as Sweet flag, below.

            Sweet Cistus (Bot.), an evergreen shrub ( Cistus Ladanum) from which the gum ladanum is obtained.

            Sweet clover. (Bot.) See Melilot.

            Sweet coltsfoot (Bot.), a kind of butterbur ( Petasites sagittata) found in Western North America.

            Sweet corn (Bot.), a variety of the maize of a sweet taste. See the Note under Corn.

            Sweet fern (Bot.), a small North American shrub ( Comptonia asplenifolia syn. Myrica asplenifolia) having sweet-scented or aromatic leaves resembling fern leaves.

            Sweet flag (Bot.), an endogenous plant ( Acorus Calamus) having long flaglike leaves and a rootstock of a pungent aromatic taste. It is found in wet places in Europe and America. See Calamus,

    2. Sweet gale (Bot.), a shrub ( Myrica Gale) having bitter fragrant leaves; -- also called sweet willow, and Dutch myrtle. See 5th Gale. Sweet grass (Bot.), holy, or Seneca, grass. Sweet gum (Bot.), an American tree ( Liquidambar styraciflua). See Liquidambar. Sweet herbs, fragrant herbs cultivated for culinary purposes. Sweet John (Bot.), a variety of the sweet William. Sweet leaf (Bot.), horse sugar. See under Horse. Sweet marjoram. (Bot.) See Marjoram. Sweet marten (Zo["o]l.), the pine marten. Sweet maudlin (Bot.), a composite plant ( Achillea Ageratum) allied to milfoil. Sweet oil, olive oil. Sweet pea. (Bot.) See under Pea. Sweet potato. (Bot.) See under Potato. Sweet rush (Bot.), sweet flag. Sweet spirits of niter (Med. Chem.) See Spirit of nitrous ether, under Spirit. Sweet sultan (Bot.), an annual composite plant ( Centaurea moschata), also, the yellow-flowered ( C. odorata); -- called also sultan flower. Sweet tooth, an especial fondness for sweet things or for sweetmeats. [Colloq.] Sweet William.

      1. (Bot.) A species of pink ( Dianthus barbatus) of many varieties.

      2. (Zo["o]l.) The willow warbler.

      3. (Zo["o]l.) The European goldfinch; -- called also sweet Billy. [Prov. Eng.]

        Sweet willow (Bot.), sweet gale.

        Sweet wine. See Dry wine, under Dry.

        To be sweet on, to have a particular fondness for, or special interest in, as a young man for a young woman. [Colloq.]
        --Thackeray.

        Syn: Sugary; saccharine; dulcet; luscious.

WordNet
sweet marjoram

n. aromatic European plant native to Mediterranean and Turkey; not widespread in Europe [syn: knotted marjoram, Origanum majorana, Majorana hortensis]

Usage examples of "sweet marjoram".

Just as when you set about preparing the balmy liquid of sweet marjoram and myrrh and the flower of spikenard which gives forth to the nostrils a scent like nectar, before all you should seek, so far as you may and can find it, the substance of scentless oil, such as gives out no perfume to the nostrils, that it may as little as possible meddle with and destroy by its own pungency the odours mixed in its body and boiled up with it.

She seldom laughed, she had spoken with discourtesy and impatience to Squire Pyncheon, who rode over the other day on purpose to bring her a bunch of sweet marjoram which grew in great profusion in his mother's garden: she markedly avoided the company of her guardian, and wandered about the park alone, at all hours of the day—.