sweeten

Etymology

From sweet + -en.

verb

1. (transitive) To make sweet to the taste.
   to sweeten tea
2. (transitive) To make (more) pleasant or to the mind or feelings.
   to sweeten life
   to sweeten friendship
3. (transitive) To make mild or kind; to soften.
   to sweeten the temper
4. (transitive) To make less painful or laborious; to relieve.
   to sweeten the cares of life
5. (transitive) To soften to the eye; to make delicate.
   Correggio has made his memory immortal by the strength he has given to his figures, and by sweetening his lights and shadows, and melting them into each other. 1695, John Dryden, De Arte Graphica
6. (transitive) To make pure and salubrious by destroying noxious matter.
   to sweeten rooms or apartments that have been infected
   to sweeten the air
7. (transitive) To make warm and fertile.
   to dry and sweeten soils
8. (transitive) To restore to purity; to free from taint.
   to sweeten water, butter, or meat
9. (transitive) To make more attractive; said of offers in negotiations.
   to sweeten the deal by increasing the price offered
10. (intransitive) To become sweet.
11. (music, transitive) To supplement (a composition) with additional instruments, especially strings.
    In most popular music the bowed strings usually play long, sustained, sweeping parts, and are sometimes added to a vocal track later in a process known as sweetening. 2011, Russell Dean Vines, Composing Digital Music For Dummies, page 326
    Rather than employ strings to “sweeten” the songs, Motown's arrangements used strings as a timbral layer, in conjunction with syncopated horn lines, for a fuller sound; […] 2014, Mellonee V. Burnim, Portia K. Maultsby, African American Music: An Introduction, page 259