Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also confectionery) a pretty young girl [SE sweet].

1844		‘Jonathan Slick’ High Life in N.Y. II 152: ‘Make way for Jonathan Slick and his sweet!’ With that I [...] went down stairs heads up, and with the gal hanging on my arm.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 26 Sept. 9/3: [S]ome of his young ladies are ‘bits of jam.’ In thus describing their charms we are quoting from the Variety Entertainment. They were, furthermore, referred to as ‘tarts,’ but we won’t go so far as to call them ‘tarts.’ We will merely smack our little lips and apostrophise them as ‘sweets.’.
1886		Sporting Times 29 May 1/5: He had been about in his time, and like the good King Solomon, and many another man [...] had partaken of wine and ‘confectionary’, not wisely, but largely.
1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 27 July 2/3: [M]any of the young ladies are Sydney sweets who are adventuring on the sea of stage life for the first time.
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 17/2: Banbury (London, 1894). One of the more recent shapes of ‘jam’, ‘biscuit’, ‘cake’, ‘confectionery’, ‘tart’ — a loose woman.
1915		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘The News’ Sporting Times 2 Jan. 1/3: On the gasworks he kept an intelligent eye, / And the other, the glad one, he saved / For a wink unofficial at any choice bit / Of confectionery he espied.
1916		C.J. Dennis ‘The Straight Griffin’ in Moods of Ginger Mick 79: ‘You tell my Rose,’ ’e writes, ‘she’s still the sweet.’.
1920		‘At A Cowboy Dance Song’ in J.A. Lomax Songs of the Cattle Trail 77: Balance all an’ swing yer sweets.
1933		‘Paul Cain’ Fast One (1936) 83: Don’t say ‘ain’t,’ sweet.
1947		M.H. Boulware Jive and Sl. n.p.: Sweet ... Girl.

2. (UK Und.) tobacco.

1884

Dundee Courier 12 Feb. 7/5: Billy’s been home [...] after bringing three pokes, give stooks, and a roll of sweet (tobacco).

3. (US black) money [play on sugar n.¹ (1)].

1929

Wesley Wilson & Harry McDaniels ‘The Gin Done Done It’ 🎵 Want to take my gal to a social dance, / But I didn’t have no sweet in my pants. / ‘Give me four dollars, take me in.’.

4. (US black) a sweetheart, a lover.

1941

‘Digg Mee’ ‘Observation Post’ in N.Y. Age 27 Sept. 9/6: [She] fell around, to spend a while with a former ‘sweet’.

5. (US black, also sweet boy, sweet one) a male homosexual [SE sweet].

1967–8		Baker et al. CUSS 207: Sweet (one) A homosexual.
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 74: stereotype effeminate homosexual [...] sweet boy (hetero sl).
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 161: Teenage males identify homosexuals [...] in ‘feminine’ terms: sissy, punk, sweet.

6. (US black) an attractive heterosexual male [SE sweet].

1980

E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 198: There were also terms related to men and sex: [...] sweet (attractive male).

7. (US drugs) a cigar hollowed out and filled with marijuana [abbr. swisher sweet].

1996		UGK ‘That’s Why I Carry’ 🎵 Blowin’ sweets and lightin’ cigs up.
2007		UGK ‘Life Is 2009’ 🎵 Comin down blowin sweets and hurtin hoes on the ave.

8. (Aus.) money paid to a police informer.

1996

P. Temple Bad Debts (2012) [ebook] It didn’t count if you took an extra ten bucks for the drinks when you put in for sweet for your dogs.