bittersweet
Also called woody nightshade. a climbing or trailing plant, Solanum dulcamara, of the nightshade family, having small, violet, star-shaped flowers with a protruding yellow center and scarlet berries.
Also called climbing bittersweet. any climbing plant of the genus Celastrus, bearing orange capsules opening to expose red-coated seeds, especially C. scandens.
pleasure mingled with pain or regret: the bittersweet of parting.
Origin of bittersweet
1Other words from bittersweet
- bit·ter·sweet·ly, adverb
- bit·ter·sweet·ness, noun
Words Nearby bittersweet
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use bittersweet in a sentence
That’s somewhat bittersweet that those celebrations and ways of bringing people together can’t happen.
‘Bills Mafia’ waited a generation for a team like this. It’s had to embrace it from afar. | Adam Kilgore | January 7, 2021 | Washington PostA generous amount of chopped bittersweet chocolate is added, and a quick roll in sugar makes them shimmer.
Caramelized banana chocolate chunk cookies are the new best use for the rest of that bunch | Jesse Szewczyk | December 2, 2020 | Washington PostIt was a bittersweet moment for Engel-Natzke and her family.
Emily Engel-Natzke’s dad was her ‘biggest fan.’ He died of covid-19 before her hockey triumph. | Samantha Pell | November 20, 2020 | Washington PostIt took connections from the Art Institute and his pieces going viral online for Leonard to eventually land the Netflix deal in August — but it was a bittersweet moment.
It’s a sweet and simple movie with a healthy dose of bittersweet wistfulness for a fading world, and it’s beautiful.
Last week I turned 40, a bittersweet occasion because I crossed the line to living longer without my mother than with her.
Everyone at This Dinner Party Has Lost Someone | Samantha Levine | January 6, 2015 | THE DAILY BEASTThis final episode of Extras is the perfect Christmastime escape for those who prefer the bittersweet to the saccharine.
Other countries understand the bittersweet better than we do.
Life After ‘Winter’s Bone’: Debra Granik on Finding J. Law and the Plight of the Female Director | Marlow Stern | October 24, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTAnd the Marc show where the only song was bittersweet Symphony.
It's Who You Know: The Power Players of New York Fashion Week | Barbara Ragghianti | September 3, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTOn July 9, South Sudan will mark three years since independence, but any celebration will be bittersweet.
Creating Consequences for South Sudan’s Political Elite | Justine Fleischner | July 9, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTAround the case he planted wild clematis, bittersweet, and wild-grapevines, and trained them over it until it was almost covered.
Freckles | Gene Stratton-PorterThe flowers are gone, but they were not brighter than the winter berries and bittersweet that glow around one.
In New England Fields and Woods | Rowland E. RobinsonIt was the Club that decorated the house with brown sedges and stalks of upstanding tawny corn and vines of bittersweet.
Ethel Morton and the Christmas Ship | Mabell S. C. SmithCelastrus scandens, more commonly known as bittersweet, is a native vine that can easily be domesticated.
ABC of Gardening | Eben Eugene RexfordThis tiny beak we can readily distinguish bent beneath the body of our bittersweet hopper.
My Studio Neighbors | William Hamilton Gibson
British Dictionary definitions for bittersweet
/ (ˈbɪtəˌswiːt) /
any of several North American woody climbing plants of the genus Celastrus, esp C. scandens, having orange capsules that open to expose scarlet-coated seeds: family Celastraceae
another name for woody nightshade
tasting of or being a mixture of bitterness and sweetness
pleasant but tinged with sadness
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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