sweet flag (swetflag)

An araceous plant, Acorus Calamus, with sword-shaped leaves and two-edged leaf-like scapes, from one edge of which emerges cylindrical spadix. It has a pungent and aromatic property, especially its thick creeping rootstock, which the officinal calamus aromatic us. This is now sparingly used as a stomachic, also in confectionery and in kinds of distilling and brewing. Also calamus, sweet-rush, sweet sedge. 2. To make pleasing or grateful to the mind: sweet-gale (swet'gal), as, to sweeten life; to sweeten friendship. Distance sometimes endears Friendship, and Absence sweeten eth it. Howell, Letters, I. 1. 6. 3. To make mild or kind; soften. Devotion softens his heart, enlightens his mind, sweetens his temper. W. Law. 4. To make le painful or laborious; lighten. Thus Noah sweetens his Captivity, Beguiles the time, and charms his misery, Hoping in God alone. Sylvester , tr. of Du Bartas's Weeks, ii., The Ark. And hope of future good, as we know, sweetens all suffering. J. H. Newman , Gram. of A ent, p. 390. 5. To increase the agreeable qualities of; also, to render le disagreeable or harsh: as, to sweeten the joys or pleasures of life. Correggio has made his name immortal by the strength he has given to his figures, and by sweetening his lights and shades. Dryden , tr. of Dufresnoy. (Johnson.) 6. To make pure and wholesome by destroying noxious or offensive matter; bring back to a state of purity or freshne ; free from taint: as, to sweeten apartments that have been infected; to sweeten the air; to sweeten water. The one might be employed in healing those blotches and tumours which break out in the body, while the other is sweetening the blood and rectifying the constitution. Add is on, Spectator, No. 16. 7. To make mellow and fertile: as, to dry and sweeten soils.