sugar

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“

This sugar was always loaf-sugar, and truly loaf-sugar; for it was purchased ever in great loaves or cones which averaged in weight about nine to ten pounds apiece.

—Home Life in Colonial Days

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American Heritage Dictionary (9)

noun A sweet crystalline or powdered substance, white when pure, consisting of sucrose obtained mainly from sugar cane and sugar beets and used in many foods, drinks, and medicines to improve their taste. Also called table sugar.
noun Any of a class of water-soluble crystalline carbohydrates, including sucrose and lactose, having a characteristically sweet taste and classified as monosaccharides, disaccharides, and trisaccharides.
noun A unit, such as a lump or cube, in which sugar is dispensed or taken.

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Century Dictionary (39)

The general name of certain chemical compounds belonging to the group of carbohydrates. They are soluble in water, have a more or less sweet taste, and are directly or indirectly fermentable. According to their chemical nature they are divided into two classes, the saccharoses and glucoses. See saccharose and glucose.
A sweet crystalline substance, prepared chiefly from the expressed juice of the sugarcane, Saccharum officinarum, and of the sugar-beet, but obtained also from a great variety of other plants, as maple, maize, sorghum, birch, and parsnip. The process of manufacturing cane-sugar generally begins with extracting the juice of the canes, either by passing them between the rollers of a rolling-mill (see sugar-mill), or by the use of raspers or “defibrators” reducing the canes to pulp and expressing the juice by subjecting the pulp to the action of powerful presses. Maceration of the canes in steam or water, as a preparation for extraction of the juice, is also practised to some extent. Another method, now coming extensively into use, is that of diffusion, in which the canes or beets are cut in small pieces, and the sugar is extracted by repeated washings with hot water. (Compare diffusion apparatus (under diffusion), and osmose.) The extraction of the juice by the crushing and expressing action of rollers in sugar-mills is, however, still more extensively practised than any other method. The juice is received in a shallow trough placed beneath the rollers, and defecated by adding to it while heated below the boiling-point either milk of lime, lime-water, bisulphite of lime, lime followed by sulphur dioxid, sulphur dioxid followed by lime, alkaline earths, sulphur compounds, or chlorine compounds, milk of lime being more generally used than any of the other substances named. (Compare defecator.) The saccharine liquor is concentrated by boiling, which expels the water; lime-water is added to neutralize the acid that is usually present; the grosser impurities rise to the surface, and are separated in the form of scum. When duly concentrated the syrup is run off into shallow wooden coolers, where it concretes; it is then put into hogsheads with holes in the bottom, through which the molasses drains off into cisterns below, leaving the sugar in the state known in commerce by the name of raw sugar, or muscovado. Sometimes the molasses is immediately separated from the sugar by centrifugal force. The raw sugar is further purified by solution in water and filtration, first through cotton bags, then through layers of animal charcoal, boiling down under diminished pressure, and crystallization. Thus clarified, it takes the names of lump-sugar, loaf-sugar, refined sugar, etc., according to the different degrees of purification and the form in which it is placed on the market. The manufacture of sugar from beet-root is carried on to a very considerable extent in France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Russia, etc. The sugar is mostly extracted from the roots by diffusion, and the subsequent defecation and concentration are carried out in a manner entirely analogous to that described for these operations in the manufacture of cane-sugar. In the United States and in Canada great quantities of sugar are obtained from the sap of the sugar-maple, Acer saccharinum. (See cut under Acer.) The Gulf States and the West Indies are the principal sources whence the supplies of cane-sugar are derived; the sugar used on the continent of Europe is chiefly obtained from the beet. Sugar was only vaguely known to the Greeks and Romans; it seems to have been introduced into Europe during the time of the crusades. The cane was grown about the middle of the twelfth century in Cyprus, whence, some time later, it was transplanted into Madeira, and about the beginning of the sixteenth century it was thence carried to the New World. For the chemical properties of pure cane-sugar, see saccharose, 3. This Manna is clept Bred of Aungeles; and it is a white thing, that is fulle swete and righte delicyous, and more swete than Hony or Sugre. Mandeville, Travels, p. 152. When shall we have any good sugar come over? The wars in Barbary make sugar at such an excessive rate, you pay sweetly now, I warrant, sir, do you not? Dekker and Webster, Northward Ho, ii. 1.
Something that resembles sugar many of its properties.

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In the early days the wheeling of the sugar was an arduous task; now in both factories ingenious machinery has been installed to save this labour. — The Life of Sir William Hartley, ebook, etext
"If a sugar is the only impediment in the way, we think there is a way around that in vaccine design," according to Ian Wilson, a professor in the department of molecular biology at Scripps Research. — GEN News Highlights
When we place the string in a solution and then in the jar full of the supersaturated solution, the sugar will be attracted to the existing solid molecules stuck to the string and form a nice crystalline structure, since sugar is a crystalline substance in nature. — LearnHub Activities
High blood level in the sugar is the main effect of this form of diabetes, which can trigger other harmful health issues. — Find Free Articles - ArticlesBase
Then, of course, rebounded once the fat from lunch subsided and the sugar was allowed to hit my system full-force. — Lemonade Life

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butter · salt · rice · coffee · bread · tobacco · juice · chocolate · spice · corn · honey · vinegar

Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

American Heritage Dictionary (1)

Middle English sugre, from Old French sukere, from Medieval Latin succārum, from Old Italian zucchero, from Arabic sukkar, from Persian shakar, from Sanskrit śarkarā, grit, ground sugar.

Century Dictionary (2)

Early modern English also suger; from Middle English suger, swgor, sugre, sucre, from Old French sucre, French sucre = Provencal sucre = Spanish azucar = Portuguese assucar (with Arabic article al) = Italian zucchero = Dutch suiker = Middle Low German sucker = Old High German zucura, Middle High German zuker, zucker, German zucker = Icelandic sykr = Swedish socker = Danish sukker = Old Bulgarian sakarǔ = Servian chakara, zakara, chukar = Bohemian cukr = Little Russian cukor, cukur = Russian sakharǔ = Polish cukier = Hungarian zukur (Slavic, etc., partly after G.), from Middle Latin succarum, succarium, sucarium, also zuccarium, zuccara, zucara, also suctura, etc., altered forms, in part apparently simulating Latin succus, sucus, juice (see suck), of saccharum, Latin saccharon, from Greek σάκχαρ, σάκχαρον, from Arabic sakkar, sokkar, sukkar, with the article as-sokkar, from Persian shakar = Hindustani shakkar, from Prakrit sakkara, sugar, from Sanskrit çarkarā, candied sugar, orig. grit, gravel; cf. Sanskrit karkara, hard, Latin calculus, a pebble (see calculus).
from Middle English sugren, from Old French sucrer, sugar; from the noun.

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/ˈʃəgər/

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sugar

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