sweet adv.2
1. without any problems, easily.
Bell’s Penny Dispatch 17 Apr. 4/2: [H]e smiled, and, unseen, gave us the wink [...] ‘I thought it would be queer if they could nip him so sweet as that,’ said Curtis. | ||
(con. 1840s–50s) London Labour and London Poor I 64/2: They sell it at the public-houses to the ‘Lushingtons,’ and to them, with plenty of vinegar, it goes down sweet. | ||
Scamping Tricks 88: He was a beautiful kidder and could patter sweet and pretty. | ||
Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 30 Jan. 1/4: A bit of hot work was put in by the clerk of the scales [...] and as he and the committeemen who grafted in with him, did not do it sweet, they were, expelled from the club. | ||
You Can Search Me 61: ‘You betcher sweet!’ Dodo replied. | ||
Truth (Perth) 1 Oct. 4/7: You will plainly understand / That his fancy has been fanned / By a ‘clyner’ who will land / Him ‘dead sweet’ . | ||
Ginger Murdoch 29: Listen, Ginge, if you want a few bob, I’m holdin’ sweet. | ||
People Talk (1972) 14: We played sweet over the Park Central, a little swing. | ||
Hang On a Minute, Mate (1963) 92: That’ll put us in sweet with him. | ||
Hell on Hoe Street 21: So when Noreen reckoned she was sharing my gaff it all went sweet. | ||
Class Act [ebook] He knew he had things sweet. |
2. of a man, being kept by a woman (there is no implication of pimping).
Home to Harlem 82: ‘He was living sweet.’ There was something so romantic about the sweet life. To be the adored of a Negro lady of means, or of a pseudo grass-widow whose husband worked on the railroad, or of a hard-working laundress or cook. It was much more respectable and enviable to be sweet—to belong to the exotic aristocracy of sweetmen. |
In phrases
(N.Z. prison) to accept without argument.
Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 51/1: cut it sweet v. to accept without complaint. |