lemon drop
- noun
- /ˈlɛmən drɑp/
- US
- "Mitzi sucked on the lemon drop thoughtfully and then pushed it back to her cheek.
Examples
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Some of the women Maggie recognized as her mother's friends, women who visited on Sunday afternoons, bringing tea cakes and lemon drops.
Fiction book (2000) -
That boy ate some lemon drops before walking into court.
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- Thank you for these lemon drops.
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Where did these lemon drops come from?
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I need some lemon drops.
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He gave us lemon drops, and we ate so many we were both sick all night.
Fiction book (1999) -
His grandmother reached across the seat, unlatched the glove compartment, and offered him whatever she found inside: a lemon drop, a coin purse shaped like a fish, a rubber key chain, a ballpoint pen filled with pebbles, a worn map of New England.
Fiction book (2002) -
The teacher popped a lemon drop into her mouth during the break.
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On the coffee table was the familiar jar of lemon drops that reminded me of my childhood.
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When I was little, you always gave me a lemon drop and made me feel special.
How Hard
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'small lemon-flavored candy' is easily derived from combining 'lemon' (flavor/ingredient) with 'drop' (a small, drop-sized piece); the compound follows a transparent noun-noun composition where the second element denotes a small item. This is a common, cross-linguistically accessible naming pattern for small sweets, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would likely understand the MWE.
Etymology
The noun lemon drop comes from the candy's look and how it was made. These small, hard sweets had lemon taste and were 'dropped' from a spoon or shaped like tiny lemons, so lemon and drop describe the flavour and the way the candy was made.