sweet nothings
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
flattering or romantic words with no real meaning
Literally: sweet words that mean nothing
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
How musical the river and how charming the trees whispering sweet nothings as we pass!
Or that London bobbies were too often to be found whispering sweet nothings to kitchen maids, and tucking into pastries in servants ' quarters on foggy nights, when they should have been out walking the beat.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “sweet nothings” mean?
flattering or romantic words with no real meaning Literally: sweet words that mean nothing
Is “sweet nothings” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.