English Explanatory Dictionary

a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down

English dictionary entry

Meanings

proverb
  1. An otherwise unpleasant situation can be pleasant when a pleasant aspect is deliberately introduced.

Pronunciation

/ə ˈspuːnfəl əv ˈʃʊɡə(ɹ)ˌhɛlps ðə ˈmɛdɪsɪn ɡoʊ ˌdaʊn/

Word forms

a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down

Etymology

From the Sherman Brothers' 1964 song "A Spoonful of Sugar".

Related words

sugarcoat a bitter pill
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on A Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary