See Also: sweetheart(medicine)
sweetheart(dictionary)
sweetheart(dictionary)
Sweetheart Cheesecake(recipes)
SWEETHEART CUP Credit Union(finance)
SWEETHEART Credit Union(finance)
Sweetheart Pudding Parfaits(recipes)

sweetheart (iou)



sweetheart noun & verb. ['swi:th¨»:t] Orig. two words. ME.
[from SWEET adjective + HEART noun.]
A. noun.
A beloved or lovable person; a person with whom one is in love; darling, dear. Freq. as a friendly, intimate, ironic, or contemptuous form of address. ME.
H. Robbins 'You don't have to be afraid any more, sweetheart'. H. L. Klawans They had..been childhood sweethearts, gone to the same college, married.
b. An illicit or clandestine lover; a mistress. L16-L18.
c. Anything especially good of its kind. N. Amer. colloq. M20.
Any of various things likened to a heart or sweetheart; spec. (a) a heart-shaped cake or tart; (b) a bur, thorny spray, or other part of a plant which attaches itself to a person's clothes; in pl., a plant bearing such burs etc., e.g. cleavers, Galium aparine; (c) colloq. & dial. a tame rabbit. M18.
More fully sweetheart rose. Any of several roses having small pink, white, or yellow flowers particularly attractive as buds, esp. a type of dwarf polyantha. N. Amer. E20.
Attrib. & comb.: In the sense 'pertaining to or designating an industrial agreement reached privately by employers and trade unions for their own interests', as sweetheart agreement, sweetheart deal, sweetheart union, etc. Special combs., as sweetheart neck, sweetheart neckline a neckline on a dress, blouse, etc., shaped like the top of a heart; sweetheart plant either of two tropical American climbing plants with heart-shaped leaves, Philodendron cordatum and P. scandens, of the arum family, grown as house-plants; sweetheart rose: see sense 3 above.
b. verb trans. & intrans. Be a sweetheart (of), behave amorously (to), court. E18.
sweethearter noun M19.