sweet

sweet, engaging, winning, winsome, dulcet are comparable when they are applied to persons or things with respect to the sensations they evoke or the impressions they produce and mean distinctly pleasing or charming because devoid of all that irritates, annoys, or embitters.

Sweet when extended beyond its primary application to one of the basic taste sensations, whether to things that produce other sensory impressions or to persons or things that induce emotional or intellectual response, is ordinarily a term of mild general approbation for what pleases, attracts, or charms without stirring deeply or arousing a profound response

{

what a sweet little cottage

}

{

twilight, sweet with the smell of lilac and freshly turned earth— Corey Ford

}

{

flower motifs and emblems, all printed in sweet colors— Rosner

}

{

has been very sweet. He wants to help, but of course there's nothing he can do— Auchincloss

}

but in this as in its primary application sweet may also imply an excess of what in more moderate quantity is pleasing and then comes close to surfeiting or cloying (compare SATIATE)

{

the flaw in her book is the sweet side, the Pollyanna note, that fatal emphasis on the happy ending— Rosemary Benét

}

Engaging and winning come very close to one another, both implying a power to attract favorable attention and strongly suggesting a power to please or delight; engaging, however, more often stresses the power of a thing to attract such attention, whereas winning usually emphasizes the power of a person to please or delight

{

an engaging story

}

{

engaging manners

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{

she has winning ways

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{

a winning smile

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{

affectionate, cheerful, happy, his sweet and engaging personality drew all men's love— H. O. Taylor

}

{

simple as a child, with his gentle, winning voice and grave smile— Brooks

}

Winsome is chiefly applied to persons or to their attractions; the term is somewhat more inclusive in meaning than the others, for it usually implies an engaging quality, a cheerful disposition, pleasing though not striking looks, and often a childlike quality

{

tears came to his eyes as he remembered her childlike look, and winsome fanciful ways— Wilde

}

Dulcet suggests an appealing and gratifying or soothing quality whether to the senses (as of some, especially musical, sounds) or to the feelings or emotions

{

the voice was . . . dulcet as the hum of heavy honeybees amid orange blossoms— Wouk

}

{

could not . . . expect such dulcet weather to last— Sackville-West

}

{

the classic, dulcet, but difficult art of architecture— R. W. Kennedy

}

Analogous words: *pleasant, pleasing, agreeable, gratifying, grateful, welcome: delicious, delectable, luscious, *delightful: lovely, fair, *beautiful: ineffable (see UNUTTERABLE)

Antonyms: sour: bitter