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Glite Dictionary
maple sugar

maple sugar

1 2.7
A sweet solid you get by boiling juice from maple trees
  • noun
  • /ˈmeɪpəl ˈʃʌɡər/
  • US
translation icon : azúcar de arce
  • " Supper was tourtière, with maple sugar pie for dessert."
  • 1 tablespoon of maple sugar
  • maple sugar candy
  • 1 cup of maple sugar

And so the closer you get to the, to the finished product, the more Maple sugar or the more sugar sand there will be.

Examples

  • Likewise, women shared corn, maple sugar, and wild rice.

    Academic text (2000)

  • If all goes well, we would be providing information and assistance for these camps, with activities ranging from berry picking to making maple sugar.

    Blog text (21)

  • The harvest of wild rice and maple sugar

    Academic text (2009)

  • At least we won't lose a fortune making maple sugar this year.

    Disappearances (2007)

  • He would come here when I was a child and bring me maple sugar candy.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • Jones just slumped against a broken wall, pulled a lump of maple sugar out of his pocket, popped it into his mouth, and began to suck on it.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • The most famous of these is the sap of sugar maple trees, used to make maple syrup and, when crystallized, maple sugar.

    Blog text (5)

  • In the spring, we collected sap from the trees to make maple sugar for our pancakes.

  • She used maple sugar to sweeten her homemade fudge, giving it a unique flavor.

  • Many recipes call for maple sugar instead of regular sugar to enhance the taste of baked goods.

Surface Forms

maple sugar singular
maple sugars plural

Morphology

maple + sugar

The meaning 'sugar obtained from the maple tree' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'maple' (the tree/source) with 'sugar' (the product). This is a common noun+noun compounding pattern (source+product) found cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the MWE's meaning.

Etymology

Maple sugar comes from a simple, literal process: people tap maple trees in spring to collect sweet sap and boil it down until it becomes sugar. That's why the term means 'sugar made from maple sap' and is used as a natural 'sweetener'.