Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Bittersweet
Bit′ter-sweetˊ
,Adj.
Sweet and then bitter or bitter and then sweet; esp. sweet with a bitter after taste; hence (
Fig.
), pleasant but painful. Bit′ter-sweetˊ
,Noun.
1.
Anything which is bittersweet.
2.
A kind of apple so called.
Gower.
3.
(Bot.)
(a)
A climbing shrub, with oval coral-red berries (
Solanum dulcamara
); woody nightshade. The whole plant is poisonous, and has a taste at first sweetish and then bitter. The branches are the officinal dulcamara
. (b)
An American woody climber (
Celastrus scandens
), whose yellow capsules open late in autumn, and disclose the red aril which covers the seeds; – also called Roxbury waxwork
.