[f. as prec. + -ER1.]
1. a. That which makes something sweet to the taste or other sense; something that imparts a sweet flavor.
1719. Quincy, Compl. Disp., 96/1. All those which usually pass for Sweetners.
1884. Dowell, Taxation, V. ii. I. 132. Sugar … began to displace honey as a sweetener for food.
b. An alkali or similar substance used to neutralize acidity; something that renders soil rich and mellow.
1681. trans. Belon’s Myst. Physick, Introd. 34. Alcalies and other Sweetners should be employed.
a. 1699. Temple, Misc., III. Health & Long Life, Wks. 1720, I. 286. Powder of Crabs-Eyes and Claws, and burnt Egg-Shells are often prescribed as Sweetners of any sharp Humours.
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 547, ¶ 10. I … having a Constitution which naturally abounds with Acids … have found it a most excellent Sweetner of the Blood.
1765. Museum Rust., IV. xl. 178. During that year, one may sow either oats, corn, peas or beans, or any sweetener.
1794. Vancouver, Agric. Cambridge, 201. The plough is … used with great propriety, as a sweetener of the soil.
c. Painting. A brush used for ‘sweetening’: See SWEETEN 8 b.
1859. Gullick & Timbs, Painting, 198. Most artists also use a brush made of badger’s hair. It bears the significant names of ‘softener’ and ‘sweetener,’ and is used to blend the colours and remove ‘edginess,’ by being swept to and fro over them while freshly laid.
2. A person or (more usually) a thing that renders something pleasant or agreeable (or mitigates its unpleasantness).
a. 1649. Drumm. of Hawth., Madrigals, A Kiss. This Sweetner of Annoyes, This Nectare of the Gods.
1670. Brooks, Wks. (1867), VI. 368. The communion with God, that is the life of your graces, the sweetener of all ordinances.
1710. Norris, Chr. Prud., viii. 350. Wisdom … the great Upholder and Sweetner of all Society.
1742. Blair, Grave, 2. Friendship!… Sweetner of Life! and Solder of Society!
1865. Mrs. Gaskell, Wives & Dau., l. Molly stood by,… and only kept where she was by the hope of coming in as sweetener or peacemaker.
1871. Smiles, Charac., ix. (1876), 260. Grace is a sweetener and embellisher of life.
† b. One who softens, palliates, or extenuates; a flatterer, cajoler. Obs.
1724. Swift, Drapier’s Lett., vii. Wks. 1755, V. II. 150. Those softners, sweetners, compounders, and expedient-mongers.
1728. [? De Foe], Capt. G. Carleton’s Mem., 202. When any Officers had asserted the Falsity of those Inventions (as they all did, except a military Sweetner or two).
1729. Swift, Poems, Libel on Delany, 154, Wks. 1738, III. 281.
| But, You, who till your Fortune’s made, | |
| Must be a Sweet’ner by your Trade, | |
| Shou’d swear he never meant us ill. |
c. Something that produces (or restores) pleasant feeling; something pleasing, gratifying, or comforting; † also, a means of persuasion, an inducement (cf. next sense).
1741. Middleton, Cicero (1742), II. viii. 235. A sweetner for my Cato.
1754. E. Farneworth, trans. Life Sextus V., IV. (1766), 190. This was what the gamesters call a Sweetner, to draw them on, and made them labour more earnestly.
1782. S. Crisp, Lett. to Mme. D’Arblay, 5 April. And now, Fanny, after this severe lecturing, I shall give you a sweetener to make it up with you.
1903. G. H. Lorimer, Lett. Self-made Merch., xiii. 186. I met him coming in from his route looking glum; so I handed him fifty dollars as a little sweetener.
3. slang. A decoy, cheat, sharper. ? Obs.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Cog,… the Money … the Sweetners drop to draw in the Bubbles. Ibid., Sweetners, Guinea-Droppers, Cheats, Sharpers.
1707. Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), VI. 223. Being one of the gang, and a sweetner, he goeing to the innocent persons to perswade them to make up the same by giving money.
1714. Lond. Gaz., No. 5272/9. Whereas divers Persons, commonly called Sweetners, have cheated many People of considerable Sums of Mony, by plausible Pretences.
b. One who bids at an auction merely in order to raise the price.
1865. Slang Dict.
1904. Daily Chron., 23 Sept., 6/4. ‘Safe bidding’ or ‘sweetening’ at an auction sale was a fraud on the public. Most men bidding at an auction trusted the other bidders. A ‘sweetener’ was a man who was not ‘playing the game.’
