sweetness and light

noun

a mild reasonableness

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when he learned who I was he became all sweetness and light

• Hypernyms: ↑affability, ↑affableness, ↑amiability, ↑amiableness, ↑bonhomie, ↑geniality

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noun

1. : a harmonious combination of beauty and intelligence

declared that the ideal of culture was sweetness and light

2. : mild reasonableness : amiability

suddenly dropped his threatening tone and became all sweetness and light

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1. extreme or excessive pleasantness or amiability.

2. decorous charm combined with intelligence.

[1695-1705]

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sweetness and light

An appearance of mildness, reasonableness, etc

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Main Entry: ↑sweet

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sweetness and light,

1. a person or thing exhibiting unusual tolerance, understanding, or sympathy (often used ironically when such a display is entirely out of character): »

Now that they need us, they are suddenly all sweetness and light. Politics is neither “sweetness and light” nor “too dirty to get into,” [she] said (New York Times).

2. a union of moral, intellectual, and aesthetic qualities, regarded as the highest cultural ideal of mankind: »

Their ideal of beauty and sweetness and light, and a human nature complete on all its sides (Matthew Arnold). Instead of dirt and poison, we have rather chosen to fill our lives with honey and with wax thus furnishing mankind with the two noblest things, which are sweetness and light (Jonathan Swift).

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social or political harmony

Khrushchev's next visit to the West was one of sweetness and light

■ a reasonable and peaceable person

when he's around she's all sweetness and light

Origin:

taken from Swift and used with aesthetic or moral reference, first by Arnold in Culture and Anarchy (1869)

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sweetness and light

: pleasant and enjoyable

Life is not all sweetness and light.

She was yelling at us all morning, but when the guests arrived, she was all sweetness and light.

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Main Entry: ↑sweetness