candy bar
- noun
- /ˈkændi bɑr/
- US
- After lunch, I often treat myself to a candy bar as a sweet snack.
So he starts handing out these candy bars, Hershey's bars and Snickers bars.
- So he starts handing out these candy bars, Hershey's bars and Snickers bars.
- So say you crave this candy bar like a Snickers.
- Who wants king size candy bars?
- So I stopped eating candy, candy bars and drinking soda when I was when I was a kid.
- If I have four friends, right, and I have a candy bar, I want to cut it up into four little parts, correct?
- Dash seasoning has come out with a new seasoning made from, get this, Twix candy bars.
- Everyone said you shouldn't have eaten the whole candy bar because that's like guzzling a bottle of Jack Daniels.
- I mean, you might be better off, you know, eating a candy bar than having broccoli that has pesticides in it.
- No, buy me like a candy bar or something, OK.
Examples
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Did you eat all these candy bars today?
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He purchased a candy bar and a drink from the vending machine.
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What is the best candy bar ever?
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No, buy me like a candy bar or something, OK.
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I just came in here for a candy bar.
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Thirty years ago, one could buy a candy bar for five cents.
Academic text (1990) -
The woman picked up two candy bars and laid a $20 bill on the counter to pay for them.
Academic text (1998) -
The winner of best candy bar ever is Twix.
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She comes in to buy a candy bar.
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Little Lefty takes the candy bar and eats it, keeping an eye on the clearing.
Fiction book (2000)
Synonyms
A solid sweet made from cocoa, shaped like a bar to eat as a snack
A rectangular milk chocolate bar made by the Hershey company
A small sweet made with chocolate and eaten as a treat
A sweet snack of nuts and sugar on a thin baked base cut into bars
A sweet bar made of soft, chewy sugar and nuts often covered in chocolate
A sweet snack made from peanuts and syrup, shaped like a bar
A sweet snack made from carob powder that people eat like chocolate
How Sweet
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a sweet snack shaped into a bar' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'candy' (sugary food) with 'bar' (a long solid piece) to indicate a bar-shaped confection. This noun-noun compounding is a common, compositional pattern across languages, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Candy bar may come from candy makers who shaped a piece of candy into a long, solid bar so people could eat it quickly and carry it easily. That's why the phrase now means 'a sweet snack shaped like a bar'.