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Synonyms

sweetmeat

American  
[sweet-meet] / ˈswitˌmit /

noun

  1. Archaic. a sweet delicacy, as a candy or candied fruit, or, originally, a cake or pastry.

sweetmeat British  
/ ˈswiːtˌmiːt /

noun

  1. a sweetened delicacy, such as a preserve, sweet, or, formerly, a cake or pastry

"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

Etymology

Origin of sweetmeat

First recorded before 1150; Old English swētmete, swōmete “delicacy” (not recorded in Middle English ); see sweet, meat

Vocabulary lists containing sweetmeat

"Yeh-Shen," Vocabulary from the folk tale

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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.

Media footage showed a man feeding the convicts sweetmeat outside the jail after touching the feet of one of them, a mark of respect.

From Reuters • Aug. 16, 2022

While my parents devoted their time and energy to the service, I daydreamed about the forthcoming sweetmeat, a symphony of tabla and harmonium scoring my reverie.

From Salon • May 2, 2022

And yet even my mighty sweet tooth has met its match in the form of a cinematic sweetmeat: “To All the Boys: Always and Forever.”

From New York Times • Feb. 11, 2021

The edible sweetmeat scenery has a fluorescent glare.

From The Guardian • Jul. 1, 2013

For dessert, they scooped the sweetmeat from coconut shells, licking the juice from their fingers.

From "Beauty Queens" by Libba Bray

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.