- present participle of sweeten.
sweetening
Americannoun
-
something that sweetens food, beverages, etc., as sugar, saccharine, etc.
-
the process of causing something to be or become sweet.
noun
Etymology
Origin of sweetening
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Developers tell the NYTimes that Chinese companies are sweetening deals by providing personal incentives to switch, drawing on the years of on-the-ground experience China’s tech and telecom providers have built up on the continent.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
Paramount, which had initially bid $108 billion for the entire company, continued to circle, launching a hostile tender offer aimed directly at shareholders and continually sweetening the terms of its bid.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 16, 2026
“They’re sweetening the pot,” Paul Hardart, a professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business, said of the Ellison family.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 30, 2025
“We are definitely looking to use the whole tool kit of available sweetening options.”
From Salon ● Jul. 23, 2025
It was clearly going to be wet all day, but it was a summer rain, deepening the green of the grass and the trees, sweetening and cleaning the air.
From "The Haunting of Hill House" by Shirley Jackson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
