BITTERSWEET

noun a kind of apple so called.

2. bittersweet ·noun anything which is bittersweet.

3. bittersweet ·adj sweet and then bitter or bitter and then sweet; ·esp. sweet with a bitter after taste; hence (fig.), pleasant but painful.

4. bittersweet ·noun 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.

5. bittersweet ·noun 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.