From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishsweetheartsweet‧heart /ˈswiːthɑːt $ -hɑːrt/ ●●○ noun 1 LOVE spoken a way of speaking to someone you love SYN darling Come here, sweetheart.2 WOMAN spoken an informal way of speaking to a woman you do not know, which some women find offensive3 → sweetheart deal4 [countable] old-fashionedLOVE the person that you love They were childhood sweethearts.
Examples from the Corpus
sweetheart• Sweetheart, I've got good news for you.• Johnny and Carmen are sweethearts, but Carmen loves Zander, because he looks so good in uniform.• That was it; she stormed out, left Paris immediately, returned to Blackpool and married her childhood sweetheart.• They then crawled round the stone three times on hands and knees, hoping to see their future sweethearts.• If he had simply been using her why, in that split-second of warning, had he called her sweetheart?• That led to a breakup with his sweetheart, who could not understand what he candidly admitted was a thirst for glory.• Then 23, she married her high school sweetheart, Dave.childhood sweethearts• Reg has remained a bachelor ever since he first asked her to marry him when they were childhood sweethearts in Cirencester.From Longman Business Dictionarysweetheartsweet‧heart /ˈswiːthɑːt-hɑːrt/ adjective [only before a noun] a sweetheart deal, contract, agreement etc is unfair because it gives people who know each other well or have a lot of influence an unfair advantageSome executives have been taking kickbacks from suppliers and accepting sweetheart deals.Critics say prosecutors gave him asweetheart sentence (=a very short one) in return for evidence against his partner. 