adjective
- both bitter and sweet to the taste: bittersweet chocolate.
- both pleasant and painful or regretful: a bittersweet memory.
noun
- Also called woody nightshade. a climbing or trailing plant, Solanum dulcamara, of the nightshade family, having small, violet, star-shaped flowers with a protruding yellow center and scarlet berries.
- Also called climbing bittersweet. any climbing plant of the genus Celastrus, bearing orange capsules opening to expose red-coated seeds, especially C. scandens.
- pleasure mingled with pain or regret: the bittersweet of parting.
noun
- any of several North American woody climbing plants of the genus Celastrus, esp C. scandens, having orange capsules that open to expose scarlet-coated seeds: family Celastraceae
- another name for woody nightshade
adjective
- tasting of or being a mixture of bitterness and sweetness
- pleasant but tinged with sadness
also bitter-sweet, late 14c. as a noun; used especially in Middle English of a type of apple, from bitter (adj.) + sweet (adj.). As an adjective, attested from 1610s.