molasses

Noun

molasses

1. (uncountable, usually) A thick, sweet syrup drained from sugarcane, especially (Canada, US) the still thicker and sweeter syrup produced by boiling down raw molasses.
   • Well, we had our breakfast of ship's bread and molasses, washed down with cannikins of something liquid - but not lovely.1907 February 2, The Chronicle, Adelaide, page 50, column 2
   • When you're well enough off so's you don't have to fret about anything but your heft or your diseases you begin to get queer, I suppose. And the queerer the cure for those ailings the bigger the attraction. A place like the Right Livers' Rest was bound to draw freaks, same as molasses draws flies.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter V, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC
2. (US, uncountable, usually) Any similarly thick and sweet syrup produced by boiling down fruit juices, tree saps, etc., especially concentrated maple syrup.
   • Boiled some cornstalk juice into molasses.1777 Sept. 13, Manessah Cutler, Journal, s.v.
3. (figuratively, uncountable, usually) Anything considered figuratively sweet, especially sweet words.
   • He really poured on the molasses, charming his audience and changing more than a few votes.
   • ‘You're the cutest thing here,’ whispered Clyde, hugging her fondly.
     ‘Gee, but you can pour on the molasses, kid, when you want to,’ she called out loud.1925, Theodore Dreiser, An American Tragedy, volume I, page 127

   Synonyms:

   sugar and honey

4. (figuratively, uncountable, usually) Something which moves or works extremely slowly.
   • Though faster than typing, the daisy wheel is molasses compared to dot matrix printers.1990, Norman Schreiber, Your Home Office, New York, N.Y.: Perennial Library, →ISBN, page 91
   • Of course, time was molasses in the cold months that bracketed that very long year; time was monotony. When all days are the same, memory caves in on itself.2022, Julia Glass, Vigil Harbor, New York, N.Y.: Pantheon Books, →ISBN, page 161
5. (Scotland, obsolete, rare, uncountable, usually) Synonym of molass: whiskey made from molasses.

   Synonyms:

   molass