Forms: see SWEET a. and -LY2. [Cf. MLG. sôt(e)lîken, MDu. soetelîke, MHG. sueʓlîche; also ME. swoteliche, SOOTLY.] In a sweet manner; with sweetness.
1. With a sweet taste or smell.
[c. 900: see 3.]
1530. Palsgr., 842/2. Swetely of taste, doucement.
a. 1547. Surrey, Eccles. v. 13. Humble vowes fullfilld by grace right swetly smoke.
c. 1565. Sparke, Hawkins’ 2nd Voy., in Hakluyt, Voy. (1600), II. 515. They [sc. turtle’s eggs] did eat very sweetly.
1611. Bible, Song Sol. vii. 9. Like the best wine … that goeth downe sweetely.
1850. Neale, Med. Hymns (1867), 121. Now the myrrh of Cyprus groweth, Widelier spreadeth, sweetlier bloweth.
2. With a sweet sound or voice.
1340. Ayenb., 61. Nykeren þet … zuo zuetelich zingeþ þet hi makeþ slepe þe ssipman.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., V. xxiii. (Bodl. MS.), lf. 13/2. Þe pipe singeþ swetelich while þe fouler disseyueþ þe bridde.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, lxxvii. 45. Madinis ȝing … Playand on timberallis, and syngand rycht sweitlie.
1598. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. i. III. Furies, 56. An Instrument. Whose symphony resounded sweetly-shrill The Almightie’s praise.
1629–30. Milton, Circumcision, 4. Ye flaming Powers…, That erst with Musick,… So sweetly sung your Joy.
1781. Cowper, Retirem., 568. Streams tinkle sweetly in poetic chime.
a. 1839. Praed, Lidian’s Love, xx. She … sang as sweetly as a caged canary.
3. So as to be pleasing to the mind or the feelings; pleasurably; comfortably.
c. 900. trans. Bæda’s Hist., V. xxiii. Concl. (1899), 486. Swetlice drincan þa word þines wisdomes.
c. 1350. Will. Palerne, 1329. Nobul leches … þat seide he schuld be sauf & sweteliche heled.
1435. Misyn, Fire of Love, II. xii. 103. Þis meruellus heet, þe qwhilk þe mynd swetelyest gladyns.
1533. Frith, Answ. More (1548), H viij. Yf a man be faythfull, the Spiryte of God worketh in hys harte very swetelye at hys communion.
1535. Coverdale, Prov. iii. 24. Thou shalt not be afrayed, but shalt take thy rest & slepe swetely.
1599. Shaks., Much Ado, IV. i. 226. Th’ Idea of her life shal sweetly creepe Into his study of imagination.
1606. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. iv. II. Magnificence, 1215. Sweetly-rapt in sacred Extasie.
1640. Quarles, Enchirid., II. xxvii. If thou labour in a painefull calling … thou shalt be … sweetlier satisfied at the time of death.
1784. Cowper, Task, I. 89. The nurse sleeps sweetly, hir’d to watch the sick, Whom snoring she disturbs.
1803. Visct. Strangford, Camoens, Sonn., vii. (1810), 93. The sweetly sad remembrances of yore!
1847. C. Brontë, Jane Eyre, viii. Nor was that problem solved to my satisfaction ere I fell sweetly asleep.
b. ironically, esp. with pay, cost.
1579. Tomson, Calvin’s Serm. Tim., 243/2. It is sure, that this his high place will cost him sweetely.
1585. Fetherstone, trans. Calvin on Acts xxii. 28. How can it be that thou beeing some base fellowe of the countrie of the Cilicians, shouldest obtayne this honour, for which I paid sweetly?
a. 1617. Hieron, Wks., II. 311. It cost Dauid sweetly for passing ouer the murder of Amnon, done by his sonne Absolom.
1855. Poultry Chron., III. 514/1. Having, as may be supposed, paid sweetly for them, and having fitted up house, nests and roosts, with the greatest care.
1882. Stevenson, New Arab. Nts. (1884), 112. Everything in this world has to be paid for, and some things sweetly.
4. So as to be pleasing to the sight or the æsthetic sense; delightfully, charmingly.
1576. Fleming, Panopl. Epist., 55. Sithence you haue written thereof in a certaine treatise very sweetly and pleasantly.
1617. Moryson, Itin., I. 45. One market-place sweetly shaded with trees.
1650. Bulwer, Anthropomet., 88. The Eye-brows ought to be … sweetly arched.
a. 1700. Evelyn, Diary, 8 May 1666. Went to visite my Co. Hales at a sweetly-water’d place at Chilston.
1766. Goldsm., Vicar W., viii. The two lovers so sweetly described by Mr. Gay, who were struck dead in each other’s arms.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., III. III. iv. Vergniaud denounces and deplores; in sweetly turned periods.
1879. S. C. Bartlett, Egypt to Pal., xxiv. 490. The lights and shadows lie sweetly on the hillsides at night and morning.
b. as a technical term of Art.
1662. Evelyn, Chalcogr., 69. Had he perform’d his heightnings with more tendernesse, and come sweetly off with the extremities of his hatchings.
1709. Pope, Ess. Crit., 489. When the ripe colours soften and unite, And sweetly melt into just shade and light.
c. with emotional or sentimental coloring.
1840. Thackeray, Barber Cox, Aug. ‘How sweetly the dear Baron rides,’ said my wife, who was ogling at him.
1907. Phyllis Dare, From School to Stage, ii. 21. I was chosen to … play the part of Little Christina in that sweetly pretty play, ‘Ib and Little Christina.’
d. In vaguer sense: In a desirable or satisfactory way; favorably; † delicately; now esp. in reference to the working of machinery: Smoothly, easily.
1594. Plat, Jewell-ho., I. 6. A Christall stone … hauing a good foyle sweetlie conueyed within the concaue superficies thereof.
1651. French, Distill., VI. 178. In these colder countreys they … never yeeld any fruit,… but if at any time nature be wittily and sweetly helped, then Art can perfect what nature could not.
1825. Edin. Rev., XLIII. 14. Like … the jerks of a machine not working sweetly.
1876. W. Cudworth, Round abt. Bradford, 120. The engines … although thirty years old … do their work ‘sweetly.’
5. With graciousness of action or treatment; with kindly disposition or intent; graciously.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 430. Lihtliche & sweteliche uorȝiueð ham hore gultes.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 14884 (Cott.). Suetli he wald þam drau him to.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Prol., 221. Ful swetely herde he confession, And plesaunt was his absolucion.
1471. Caxton, Recuyell (Sommer), 51. Whan he had herd her answers and had seen how swetly she had taken hit.
1502. Ord. Crysten Men (W. de W.), I. iii. That it wolde please ye swetely to beholde hym or her thy seruaunt.
1589. R. Harvey, Pl. Perc. (title-p.), Sweetly indevvring with his blunt persuasions to botch vp a Reconciliation.
1621. Elsing, Debates Ho. Lords (Camden), 48. The sentence in the Star Chamber, the which he confesseth justly imposed and swetely.
1673. S. C., Art of Complaisance, 15. We must represent things which appear difficult and greivous by insinuating them sweetly into the spirit of those to whom we speak.
1794. Mrs. Radcliffe, Myst. Udolpho, xli. She used to try so sweetly to oblige him.
6. With pleasantness of manner or address; in sweet terms; hence, affectionately, lovingly.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 264. In eueriche time hwon ȝe neode habbeð, scheaweð so sweteliche to his swete earen.
a. 1300. K. Horn, 404 (Camb.). On knes he him sette, And sweteliche hure grette.
13[?]. Cursor M., 15651 (Gött.). Ful suetli to þaim he spack, ‘breþer, quat nu do ȝe?’
c. 1440. Jacob’s Well, 267. Be fayr of speche, answere swetely!
a. 1533. Ld. Berners, Huon, lxxxv. 267. He … toke leue of hym, & swetely kyssyd hym.
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., I. v. 111. O trespasse sweetly vrg’d.
1602. trans. Guarini’s Pastor Fido, II. i. E j b. Let’s kisse and striue Who can kisse sweetliest among our selues.
1743. Francis, trans. Hor., Odes, I. xxii. 24. The nymph, who sweetly speaks, and sweetly smiles.
1852. Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., xx. The child looked perplexed and sorrowful, but said sweetly—‘Poor Topsy, why need you steal?’
1867. Trollope, Chron. Barset, II. xlv. 14. He was disappointed … although she had spoken to him so sweetly.
7. Qualifying pples. used adj., often hyphened (in any of the preceding senses), as sweetly-breathing, -budding, -fenced, -smelling, -swelling, -written; occas. with adjs., as sweetly-pensive, -wise; also less correctly used for ‘sweet’ in parasynthetic combination, as sweetly-scented, -tasted, -toned.
a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia, II. (1912), 219. Of pretious pearle the double rowe, The second sweetly-fenced warde, Her heav’nly-dewed tongue to garde. Ibid., III. 447. Her roundy sweetly swelling lippes.
1641. in Verney Mem. (1907), I. 229. A most noble and sweetly disposed lady.
1743. Francis, trans. Hor., Sec. Poem, 100. Sweetly-shining queen of night.
1760–72. H. Brooke, Fool of Qual. (1809), IV. 37. In a sweetly-breathing accent … scarcely audible.
a. 1774. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), II. 475. Hymns, meditations, and sweetly-written books.
1844. Kinglake, Eöthen, xviii. Spices or sweetly-burning woods.
1846. H. G. Robinson, Odes of Horace, II. xii. Thy mistress Lycimnia’s sweetly-ton’d voice.
1871. B. Taylor, Faust (1875), II. II. iii. 120. She thanked with sweetly-wise and conscious tongue.
1875. W. M‘Ilwraith, Guide to Wigtownshire, 18. The sweetly-scented birch.
