Link Centre Dictionary

sweetly

UK/ˈswiːtli/ US/ˈswitli/ uncommon

adverb

1.

in an affectionate or loving manner (`sweet'' is sometimes a poetic or informal variant of `sweetly'')

  • “Susan Hayward plays the wife sharply and sweetly”
  • “how sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank” Shakespeare
  • “talking sweet to each other”
Synonyms

Origin

From Middle English swetly, swetely, sweteliche, from Old English swētlīċe (“sweetly; pleasantly”), equivalent to sweet + -ly. Cognate with Old High German swuozlīhho (“sweetly”), Icelandic sætlega (“sweetly; with gratitude”), German süßlich (“sweetish; sugary”), Dutch zoetelijk (“sentimental”).

Related words

Pertaining to

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.