Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of, relating to, or characteristic of sugar or saccharin; sweet.
  • adjective Having a cloyingly sweet attitude, tone, or character.
  • adjective Excessively sentimental.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Of, pertaining to, or of the nature of sugar; having the qualities of sugar: as, a saccharine taste; the saccharine matter of the cane-juice; also, in botany, covered with shining grains like those of sugar. Also saccharous.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Chem.) A trade name for benzoic sulphinide.
  • adjective Of or pertaining to sugar; having the qualities of sugar; producing sugar; sweet.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Of or relating to saccharin.
  • adjective Of or relating to sugar.
  • adjective pejorative Excessively sweet in action or disposition; syrupy.
  • adjective Sentimental or romantic to the point of ridiculousness.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective overly sweet

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From sacharin + -ine

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Medieval Latin saccharum + -ine.

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Examples

  • Empathy without saccharine is just the perfect recipe for me, and I felt so much better after talking with her, someone who really knows me better than almost anyone.

    Gingerpie Out: Wordy Thursday Edition kittenpie 2008

  • Empathy without saccharine is just the perfect recipe for me, and I felt so much better after talking with her, someone who really knows me better than almost anyone.

    Archive 2008-07-01 kittenpie 2008

  • This early work is that of a young man still coming to terms with his sexuality and politics; there is a gentle, tentative longing here that would border on the saccharine were the poet not so evidently and deeply invested in every line.

    Seth Abramson: February 2012 Contemporary Poetry Reviews Seth Abramson 2012

  • This early work is that of a young man still coming to terms with his sexuality and politics; there is a gentle, tentative longing here that would border on the saccharine were the poet not so evidently and deeply invested in every line.

    Seth Abramson: February 2012 Contemporary Poetry Reviews Seth Abramson 2012

  • We are donating the technology of feeding with protein honey, and we are donating the technology of saccharine, which is very easy and simple to produce.

    Fidel Castro Addresses ICA on Livestock 1990

  • And new love, full of magic and promise can in the next moment teeter on the brink of becoming too "saccharine" or blowing up, melting down or drowning in bitter tears.

    Kay Goldstein: Love and Chocolate 2009

  • So Obama's "saccharine" speech was about as realpolitik as it gets.

    Christopher Farah: Obama's "Disney" Realpolitik 2008

  • And that requires exactly the kind of diplomacy Brooks dismisses merely as "saccharine" fairytales.

    Christopher Farah: Obama's "Disney" Realpolitik 2008

  • Here is the same kind of saccharine melody that makes mawkish the trio in the "Marche Funebre."

    Chopin : the Man and His Music James Huneker 1890

  • "I've always known girls from the South could get a bad rap for being kind of saccharine, but Palmetto should have taken out a patent on its own brand of artificiality," she muses.

    Publishers Weekly - Children's Books News 2010

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