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to candy

to candy

1 7.4
To coat fruit or nuts in sugar so they become sweet and last longer
  • verb
  • /ˈkændi/
: confitar
  • You might as well, candy.

Examples

  • "He can candy anything," the old ladies said fiercely.

    Fiction book (1997)
  • - Oh, is not candy the girl?

  • I candy-striped one summer.

  • You're like a cold piece of toast, and I'm not gonna candy-coat things for you, because if you want candy-coated information, you...

  • She decided to candy the fresh strawberries by coating them in sugar syrup.

  • The chef will candy the orange peels, making them a delightful garnish for desserts.

  • To preserve the cherries for the winter, he learned to candy them with a sweet glaze.

Synonyms

to sugar
vsto candy
9 1.0

To add a sweet white substance from plants to food or drink to make it sweet

does coating or preserving with syrup until a hard sweet shell forms
to glaze
vsto candy
9 4.2

To cover a surface with a smooth shiny liquid that dries hard, for example on food or pottery

uses sweet syrup to coat and often form a crystallized shell
to sugarcoat
vsto candy
1 4.4

Cover food with a sweet sugar layer

preserves by coating with sweet syrup until crystals form

Idioms

Very excited and happy because there are many things to choose from

Phrasal Verbs

to candy-coat
  • Informal
3 7.2

To make something unpleasant sound better to avoid hurting feelings

Compounds

77 1.0

A sweet made of chocolate or sugar that you eat as a snack

40 1.0

A light, fluffy sweet made from spun sugar on a stick

32 1.0

A hard sweet stick with red and white stripes that tastes like mint and is used at Christmas

29 1.0

A shop that sells candy and other sweets

eye candy
  • Slang
15 6.3

Attractive pictures or designs that please the eyes but give little useful information

13 3.5

A small triangular sweet with yellow, orange, and white layers often eaten at Halloween

12 1.0

A small sweet made from sugar that you suck rather than chew

9 3.2

A man who sells sweets to children from a cart or stall

6 1.0

A small sweet made with chocolate and eaten as a treat

6 2.2

A hard sweet made of large clear sugar crystals on a stick

candy striper
  • Archaic
6 8.9

A young volunteer, often a girl or young woman, who helps with non-medical tasks in a hospital

nose candy
  • NSFW
3 9.9

An illegal white drug that people inhale through the nose

3 3.1

An apple covered in a hard shiny sugar coating

3 1.0

A hard sweet made by boiling sugar and letting it cool

A small hard sweet with a strong mint taste often red and white

A small kitchen tool that measures sugar syrup temperature when making candy

1 2.9

A pale pink colour like spun sugar

1 1.0

A small sweet shaped like an egg often given at Easter

1 1.0

A small sweet with a mint taste that is often hard or chewy

1 2.3

A small wrapped piece of chocolate you eat in one bite

brain candy
  • Informal
1 6.5

Fun TV shows or books that do not need much thought

1 4.3

Smelling like candy

1 7.4

A hard clear sweet made from melted sugar and often shaped like animals

How Sugary

to candy
1 7.4
to sugarcoat
1 4.4
to glaze
9 4.2
to sprinkle
106 1.1

Surface Forms

candy infinitive
candied past
candied past participle
candying present participle
candies third person singular

Etymology

Candy as a verb comes from the same old words for 'sugar', such as qand, and originally meant 'to coat or turn into sugar'. So to candy fruit or nuts is to cover them in sugar, which is exactly how we use the word today.