treacles

Noun

treacle (countable and uncountable, plural treacles)

1. (Ireland, UK) A syrupy byproduct of sugar refining; molasses or golden syrup.
   • Didn’t you see how the cub was ashamed of the thick bread-and-butter? I dare say they’re going to have treacle if they are good.1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 26, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published...
2. Cloying sentimental speech.
   • The public tributes to Griffith were over-the-top in a way his acting never was, spreading treacle from the evening newscasts to the front page of the New York Times.2012 July 22, Frank Rich, “Mayberry R.I.P.”, in New York
3. (Cockney, slang) Sweetheart (from treacle tart).
   • Listen, treacle, this is the last time I'll warn you!
4. (historical) Synonym of theriac: an antidote for poison, especially snakebite; a supposedly universal antidote.
   • CHEWING-BALLS, a kind of balls made of aſafœtida, liver of antimony, bay-wood, juniper-wood, and pellitory of Spain; which being dried in the ſun, and wrapped in a linen-cloth, are tied to the bit of the bridle for the horſe to chew: they create an appetite; and it is ſaid, that balls of Venice...1771, Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1st ed., volume II, page 183

   Synonyms:

   theriac

   1. (broadly, figuratively, historical, obsolete) Synonym of cure: an all-powerful curative for some particular affliction.
   2. (broadly, figuratively, historical, obsolete) Synonym of cure-all: a panacea for all human ailments.

See all 7 meanings of treacle