bittersweet Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun poisonous perennial Old World vine having violet flowers and oval coral-red berries; widespread weed in North America
    bittersweet nightshade; climbing nightshade; poisonous nightshade; woody nightshade; deadly nightshade; Solanum dulcamara.
  2. noun twining shrub of North America having yellow capsules enclosing scarlet seeds
    climbing bittersweet; waxwork; shrubby bittersweet; false bittersweet; staff vine; Celastrus scandens; American bittersweet.
  3. adjective satellite tinged with sadness
    • a movie with a bittersweet ending
  4. adjective satellite having a taste that is a mixture of bitterness and sweetness
    semisweet.

WordNet

Bit"ter*sweet` adjective
Definitions
  1. Sweet and then bitter or bitter and then sweet; esp. sweet with a bitter after taste; hence (Fig.), pleasant but painful.
Bit"ter*sweet` noun
Definitions
  1. Anything which is bittersweet.
  2. A kind of apple so called. Gower.
  3. (Bot.) (a) A climbing shrub, with oval coral-red berries (Solanum dulcamara); woody nightshade. The whole plant is poisonous, and has a taste at first sweetish and then bitter. The branches are the officinal dulcamara. (b) An American woody climber (Celastrus scandens), whose yellow capsules open late in autumn, and disclose the red aril which covers the seeds; -- also called Roxbury waxwork.

Webster 1913