syrup

 
Pronunciation: /ˈsɪrəp/
(US also sirup)

noun

  • 1 [mass noun] a thick, sweet liquid made by dissolving sugar in boiling water, often used for preserving fruit.
  • a thick, sweet liquid containing medicine or used as a drink: cough syrup
  • a thick, sticky liquid obtained from sugar cane as part of the processing of sugar.
  • excessive sweetness or sentimentality of style or manner: Mr Gurney’s poems are almost all of them syrup
  • 2British informal a wig: he has been bald for the past twenty years, his shame concealed by a syrup of some opulence
    [from rhyming slang syrup of figs]

Origin:

late Middle English: from Old French sirop or medieval Latin siropus, from Arabic šarāb 'beverage'; compare with sherbet and shrub2

Spelling help

The beginning of syrup is spelled sy- (the spelling sirop is American).