sugar

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. 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.
2. n. 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.
3. n. A unit, such as a lump or cube, in which sugar is dispensed or taken.
4. n. Slang Sweetheart. Used as a term of endearment.
5. v. To coat, cover, or sweeten with sugar.
6. v. To make less distasteful or more appealing.
7. v. To form sugar.
8. v. To form granules; granulate.
9. v. To make sugar or syrup from sugar maple sap. Often used with off.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. 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.
2. n. 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.
3. n. Something that resembles sugar many of its properties.
4. n. Figuratively, sweet, honeyed, or soothing words; flattery employed to disguise something distasteful.
5. n. The coarse grains or dust of refined sugar formed during the operations of crushing or cutting loaf-sugar, and separated from the lumps by screening.
6. To season, cover, sprinkle, mix, or impregnate with sugar.
7. Figuratively, to cover as with sugar; sweeten; disguise so as to render acceptable what is otherwise distasteful.
8. To sweeten something, as tea, with sugar.
9. To make (maple) sugar.

Wiktionary

1. n. uncountable Sucrose in the form of small crystals, obtained from sugar cane or sugar beet and used to sweeten food and drink.
2. n. countable When used to sweeten drink, an amount of such crystalline sucrose approximately equal to five grams or one teaspoon.
3. n. countable, chemistry Any of various small carbohydrates that are used by organisms to store energy.
4. n. countable A generic term for sucrose, glucose, fructose, etc.
5. n. countable A term of endearment.
6. n. countable, slang A kiss.
7. n. slang, uncountable Effeminacy in a male, often implying homosexuality.
8. n. uncountable, informal Diabetes.
9. v. transitive To add sugar to; to sweeten with sugar.
10. v. transitive To make (something unpleasant) seem less so.
11. interj. informal, euphemistic Used in place of shit!

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A sweet white (or brownish yellow) crystalline substance, of a sandy or granular consistency, obtained by crystallizing the evaporated juice of certain plants, as the sugar cane, sorghum, beet root, sugar maple, etc. It is used for seasoning and preserving many kinds of food and drink. Ordinary sugar is essentially sucrose. See the Note below.
2. n. By extension, anything resembling sugar in taste or appearance.
3. n. colloq. Compliment or flattery used to disguise or render acceptable something obnoxious; honeyed or soothing words.
4. v. Local, U.S. In making maple sugar, to complete the process of boiling down the sirup till it is thick enough to crystallize; to approach or reach the state of granulation; -- with the preposition off.
5. v. To impregnate, season, cover, or sprinkle with sugar; to mix sugar with.
6. v. To cover with soft words; to disguise by flattery; to compliment; to sweeten.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. informal terms for money
2. v. sweeten with sugar
3. n. a white crystalline carbohydrate used as a sweetener and preservative
4. n. an essential structural component of living cells and source of energy for animals; includes simple sugars with small molecules as well as macromolecular substances; are classified according to the number of monosaccharide groups they contain