sugar
UK /ˈʃʊɡə/ · US /ˈʃʊɡɚ/ noun, verb, interjection, proper noun
Forms sugars sugaring sugared shugar
- noun (uncountable) A food consisting of small, sweet crystals, principally of sucrose, obtained from sugar cane or sugar beet and used as sweetener and preservative.
- noun (countable) Any specific variety of sugar.
- noun (countable, chemistry) Any of various small, water-soluble carbohydrates such as are used by organisms for energy and various other purposes.
- noun (countable) A small serving of this substance (typically about one teaspoon), used to sweeten a drink. “He usually has his coffee white with one sugar.”
- noun A bowl or other container of sugar. “Pass the sugar, please”
- noun (countable) A term of endearment. “I'll be with you in a moment, sugar.”
- noun (uncountable, slang) Affection shown by kisses or kissing.
- noun (chiefly southern US, slang, uncountable) Effeminacy in a male, often implying homosexuality. “I think John has a little bit of sugar in him.”
- verb (transitive) To add sugar to; to sweeten with sugar. “John heavily sugars his coffee.”
- verb (transitive) To make (something unpleasant) seem less so. “She has a gift for sugaring what would otherwise be harsh words.”
- verb (US, Canada, regional) In making maple sugar, to complete the process of boiling down the syrup till it is thick enough to crystallize; to approach or reach the state of granulation; with the preposition off.
- verb (entomology) To apply sugar to trees or plants in order to catch moths.
- verb (programming, transitive) To rewrite (source code) using syntactic sugar.
- verb (transitive) To compliment (a person).
- verb To remove hair using a paste of sugar, water, and lemon juice.
- interjection Minced oath of shit. “Oh, sugar!”
- noun (World War II era, joint US/RAF) radiotelephony clear-code word for the letter S.
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
babber babe precious bae baby babycakes bubba bully buttercup cabbage chickabiddy chickadee chuck cupcake cutie dag darling dear dear heart dearest refined sugar carbohydrate saccharide boodle bread clams dinero dough gelt kale
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English sugre, borrowed from Old French çucre, borrowed from Old Italian zucchero, borrowed from Arabic سُكَّر (sukkar), borrowed from Middle Persian 𐭱𐭪𐭥 (šakar), borrowed from Gandhari 𐨭𐨐𐨪 (śakara), from Sanskrit शर्क॑रा (śárkarā), from Proto-Indo-Aryan *śárkaraH, from Proto-Indo-Iranian *ćárkaraH, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱorkeh₂ (“gravel”). Akin to Ancient Greek κρόκη (krókē, “pebble”), whence the words crocodile and krokodil are derived. Doublet of jaggery and sucro-.
The verb is from Middle English sugren, from the noun.
* As a Hungarian surname, from the noun sugár (“light ray”).
* As a German and Jewish surname, semantic loan from German Zucker (“sugar”).
Webster’s 1913
- noun A sweet white (or brownish yellow) crystalline substance, of a sandy or granular consistency, obtained by crystallizing the evaporated juice of certain plants, as the sugar cane, sorghum, beet root, sugar maple, etc. It is used for seasoning and preserving many kinds of food and drink. Ordinary sugar is essentially sucrose. See the Note below.
- noun By extension, anything resembling sugar in taste or appearance; as, sugar of lead (lead acetate), a poisonous white crystalline substance having a sweet taste.
- verb In making maple sugar, to complete the process of boiling down the sirup till it is thick enough to crystallize; to approach or reach the state of granulation; --with the preposition off. [Local, U.S.]
- verb To impregnate, season, cover, or sprinkle with sugar; to mix sugar with. "When I sugar my liquor." G. Eliot.
Etymology [OE. sugre, F. sucre (cf. It. zucchero, Sp. azúcar), fr. Ar. sukkar, assukkar, fr. Skr. çarkara sugar, gravel; cf. Per. shakar. Cf. Saccharine, Sucrose.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “sugar”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details