(Also as two words, with or without capitals, or rarely as one word without hyphen.)
1. A species of pink, Dianthus barbatus, cultivated in numerous varieties, bearing closely clustered flowers of various shades of white and red, usually variegated or parti-colored.
1573. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 96. Herbes, branches and flowers, for windowes and pots…. Sweete Williams.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, II. vii. 154. The third [sort of gillofer] is that which we cal in Englishe Sweete Williams and colmeniers.
1616. W. Browne, Brit. Past., II. iii. 62. They did … intwine The white, the blewe, the flesh-like Coluinbine With Pinckes, Sweet-williams.
1786. J. Abercrombie, Arrangem., in Gard. Assist., 68/1. Double mule, or sweet-william pink.
1796. C. Marshall, Garden., xix. (1813), 355. Sweet William (or bearded pink) is distinguished into broad and narrow leaved sorts.
1866. M. Arnold, Thyrsis, vii. Sweet-William with his homely cottage-smell.
1879. Dowden, Southey, 4. A house rich in old English comfort, with its diamond-tiled garden-way,… its sweet-williams and stocks and syringas.
b. Applied to other species of pink, also to plants of other genera:
Childing Pink, Dianthus prolifer (Childing Sweet-william); the Deptford Pink, D. Armeria (also called Sweet-william Catchfly); † the Wallflower, Cheiranthus Cheiri (obs.); Lobel’s Catchfly, Silene Armeria (Treas. Bot.); the Scarlet Lychnis, L. chalcedonica (U.S.); Phlox maculata (Wild Sweet-william), of N. America; and Ipomœa Quamoclit, of Barbados.
1562. Bullein, Bulwarke, Bk. Simples (1579), 46. The whyte and yellow Gilloflower, called sweete William, or hearts ease.
1633. Johnson, Gerarde’s Herbal, II. clxxxiv. 599. Armeria prolifera, Lob. Childing sweet Williams.
1760. J. Lee, Introd. Bot., App. 329. Sweet William of Barbadoes, Ipomœa.
1856. A. Gray, Man. Bot. (1860), 330. Phlox maculata … (Wild Sweet-William).
2. † a. Applied to the tope or dog-fish. b. A local name for the goldfinch.
1730. S. Dale, Taylor’s Hist. Harwich & Dovercourt, 420. Cartilagineous Fishes. I. The Dog-kind, or such are as long…. The Sweet-William.
1848. Zoologist, VI. 2258. The goldfinch is called a ‘red-cap,’ a ‘sweet-William,’ a ‘proud tailor.’
