Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a pretty young woman whose role is merely to adorn the arm of her male companion.

1992		Chicago Trib. (Nexis) 21 Aug. 63: She’d already had mini-roles in eight movies when she turned up as George Sanders’ arm candy in the party scenes of this film.
1999		Guardian Guide 26 June–2 July 6: Anyone would expect your gold-digging arm candy to use you for their own ends.
2000		Guardian 26 Feb. 25: She arrived on the scene to play Mr. Duke’s ‘arm candy’.
2011		‘Jack Tunney’ Split Decision [ebook] Still they come, content with their role as arm candy for the big shots as long as it keeps them in mink.
2015		T. Pluck ‘Last Detail’ in Life During Wartime (2018) 280: ‘I’m not Privrat’s arm candy because I’m into back hair and halitosis’.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 868: [S]he had evolved from provincial dumpling to high maintenance cosmopolitan arm-candy.

anything superficially attractive but intellectually undemanding.

1984		J. Green Newspeak 31/1: brain candy (TV/US) escapist programming — game shows, banal ‘thriller’ series, etc.
1990		in D.M. Scura Conversations with Tom Wolfe 100: The supplements in those days were like brain candy [...] If a story didn't grab the reader right away, he threw it away.
1999		Indep. Rev. 21 May 14: They’ll note the brand of brain candy. Scarf up the sonics.

a sexually attractive looking person.

1932		Quad-City Times (Davenport, IA) 6 Apr. 2/1: Yep! she was there on teasy legs / And hot-arms cutey-nude / [...] and swell eye-food.
1979		G. Cowan See No Evil 309: His rationale for eschewing exploitative ‘eye candy’ seemed to apply to more serious sex-related ventures as well.
1981		J.R. Zodrow All Out 41: I been through two other marriages. One was with a fiddle player down in Nashville. He was fun. Eye candy [...] Couldn't play the fiddle for nothin’. But he scored good for me.
1986		Kehl & Heidt in Seyler & Boltz Lang. Power (2nd edn) 211: This ad also features an elegantly dressed woman with conspicuous cleavage, which advertising executives reportedly refer to as ‘eye candy’.
1996		Detroit Free Press (MI) 4 Oct. 4G/1: The most interesting eye candy gawk object is Burke as evil Myrtle Beech.
2002		P. Baker Fantabulosa.
2005		Mad mag. Apr. 24: I’m Jolida. I’m just eye candy here to watch and cling.
2007		R. Milward Apples (2023) 170: But she meant more to me than just eye candy.
2012		A. Bergen ‘Dread Fellow Churls’ in Crime Factory: Hard Labour [ebook] Laurel was [...] shorter in height, but immeasuirably superior eye-candy.
2016		Guardian CiF 19 Nov. 🌐 What’s wrong with some eye candy, I bet the Japanese premier wasn't complaing.
2017		T. Spicer Good Girl Stripped Bare 5: Few creatures are more maligned than an overweight female, because popular culture says our sole purpose is to act as eye candy.
2021		London Rev. Books 16 Dec. 🌐 ‘No cross-dressing. Women playing the ugly sisters instead of just the eye candy’.
2022		A. Nette Twitter 6 Nov. 🌐 Anita Ekberg plays a drug mule, but is there mainly as eye candy.

(US) sexual intercourse.

1842

Wkly Rake (NY) 26 Nov. n.p.: the rake wants to knowWho got a piece of candy from three women in Broadway last Wednesday evening.

(US drugs) a place where cocaine is sold.

1959

J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore.

(drugs) cocaine.

1959		J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore 24: Candy cee – same as Candy.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 5: Candy C — Cocaine.

1. (US black) cocaine, whether as powder or crack.

1994

G. Smitherman Black Talk.

2. see also SE compounds below.

(US drugs) a cocaine addict.

1959		J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore.
1975		Hardy & Cull Drug Lang. and Lore.

(US drugs) to mix or sequence LSD and MDMA; thus candy-flipping n.

1992		Eble Campus Sl. Apr.
1994		Recreational Drug Information Website 🌐 Ecstasy and acid together, this is commonly known as candy-flipping. I’m not sure why. I’ve only done it once, and I found that there was indeed a powerful, synergistic effect.
1997–2001		Online Sl. Dict. 🌐 candy flip v 1. to ingest LSD and ecstasy at the same time. Extremely popular at dance clubs and raves because of the intense high. (‘I’ve never candy flipped as hard as I did last night.’).
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 5A/4: Candy-flipping — LSD mixed with ecstasy.
2001		Newark Advocate (OH) 21 Oct. 5/3: Candy-flipping on a string: LSD with Ecstasy, folowed by cocaine.
2011		S.T. Jones Tribes of Burning Man 186: Candy-flipping (LSD and ecstasy) or hippie-flipping (shrooms and ecstasy), depending on my mood and agenda. It's the perfect combo: E for the euphoria and psychedelics to amp up the weirdness.
2016		C. Eble (ed.) UNC-CH Campus Sl. Fall .
2022		Twitter 22 Oct. 🌐 [T]his is the hill where I discovered what happened if you took ecstasy and LSD at the same time. The answer was: very very good things indeed. [...] Ah the candy drop, a one way ticket to joy and or/ madness.

(Aus. drugs) cocaine hydrochloride.

1997

L. Davies Candy 76: The cocaine hydrochloride [...] was now becoming cocaine base, or freebase, or candy rock, or crack.

1. (US black) the penis.

1928

Mississippi John Hurt ‘Candy Man Blues’ 🎵 Ah heard what sister Johnson said, / She always takes a candy stick to bed.

2. see stick n. (3)

(US drugs) cocaine.

1990

S. Morgan Homeboy 77: ‘What you puttin in my cooker?’ ‘Lil Andes candy.’.

(drugs) heroin.

1970		R. Gilmore Drug Education Hbk.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 11: Hard candy — Heroin.

see under nose n.

(US) a boyfriend, a beloved male (cf. candy boy ).

1901

‘Hugh McHugh’ Down the Line 82: I was her candy boy for sure.

(US black) a young, inexperienced male.

1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 148: Females, like males, talked about undesirable men in terms of being [...] socially inexperienced or inept ( [...] junior, candy butt).
1991		G. Korman Radio Fifth Grade 8: ‘You nauseating candy-butt!’ she muttered as Benjy slumped behind his desk in exhaustion .
1999		N. Tepper Happy Hunting Grounds 144: Aw, go to sleep, candy-butt!'.

see separate entries.

(US prison) a prisoner who has become a passive homosexual while in prison.

1968		in B. Jackson In the Life (1972) 182: You very seldom catch an outside fag enter here. Most of what you have in here are known as candy-bar punks.
1998		Jrnl Study Food & Society 2-6 36/2: A male prisoner who accepts the passive role in homosexual pairings is derided by his fellow inmates as a ‘candy-bar punk’.
2002		W.A. Woloson Refined Tastes [ebook] A ‘candy bar punk’ is a young prisoner who has found protection with an older and dominant man.

(Aus.) a jack-of-all-trades employed by a brothel.

1953		Baker Aus. Speaks 125: A harlot’s handy-man [...] is sometimes called a [...] candy boy.
1984		Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 178/2: candy-boy A prostitute’s handyman.

1. (US) the penis.

1928		M. Bodenheim Georgie May 70: Gawgie found a man with a candystick — ye-es, she did!
1928		Mississippi John Hurt ‘Candy Man Blues’ 🎵 His stick candy don’t melt away / It just gets better, so the ladies say.
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 49: penis [...] candy cane.

2. see also drug compounds above.

(US) a well-behaved, pleasant person; the inference is of softness.

1925

G.H. Mullin Adventures of a Scholar Tramp 296: Well, if ol’ Red ain’t the candy-cock! Shavin’! Kin ye beat that?

see separate entry.

1. (US campus) a rich student who is also attractive to women.

1920		McKenna 315th Infantry 155: ‘Candy Legs’ McHenry [HDAS].
1934		Weseen Dict. Amer. Sl. 176: Candy leg – A male student who is popular with the girls.
1945		‘Campus Sl. at Minnesota’ in AS XX:3 Oct. 233/2: Everyone knows he is a chicken butcher – a chic sheik and a candy leg.

2. a ‘sugar daddy’.

2009

B. Wade Seeking Arrangement 219: Candy-Leg: Synonym for Sugar Daddy. Refers to a wealthy, older man who supports or contributes to the support of a young woman.

(US) a male homosexual who masturbates (but does not fellate) a partner, then swallows the resultant semen.

1965		Guild Dict. Homosexual Terms 7: candymaker (n.): A homosexual who masturbates his partner and then consumes the semen, without practicing fellation.
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.

see separate entry.

(US) a volunteer nurse’s aide; thus candystripe, to work as such an aide.

1961		Sat. Eve. Post 234 35: Karen’s work includes serving meals and feeding patients, but as a Candystriper she is never involved in actual treatment of the sick.
1967		Gillespie & Spirit Juniorplots 80: In Candy Stripers, she has combined a frothy girl's story with interesting details about the duties of junior hospital aides.
1976		R. Price Blood Brothers 107: You come with me you be makin’ more bread in two weeks than you’ll make candy stripin’ for two months [...] You wanna be a candy striper or whatever, it’s on you.
1984		Totally True Diaries of an Eighties Roller Queen 6 Aug. 🌐 Today I went to pick up Tracy G. at the hospital. She’s a candy striper.
1995		R. Campbell Wizard of La-La Land (1999) 19: Nobody except Mary Bucket, the nurse who was head of the graveyard shift [...] knew that Diana Corday, the candy striper, was a hooker.
2006		www.biography.ms 🌐 A hospital volunteer is sometimes nicknamed a candystriper. This name is derived from the fact that they traditionally wear red and white striped jumpers.

(US) the preferred team of mules.

1930

‘Dean Stiff’ Milk and Honey Route 20 1: Candy team is the favorite span of mules in the outfit.

1. (US) a buggy.

1926		Odum & Johnson Negro Workaday Songs 99: Ol’ Aunty Dinah had candy wagon.
1937		J. Steinbeck Of Mice and Men 70: Carlson, you get the candy wagon hitched up.
1987		(con. 1911) K. Ahrendt Memoirs 1: A light one horse candy wagon was approaching the corner where I was about to cross. For some unavoidable reason I crossed right in front of this horse and wagon.

2. a light truck.

1942		B.H. Porter ‘Truck Driver Lingo’ in AS XVII:2 Pt 1 103/1: Candy Wagon. Light truck.
1958		McCulloch Woods Words 28: Candy wagon – a crew truck.
1968		R.F. Adams Western Words (2nd edn) 52/1: Candy wagon. In logging, a station wagon or bus that transports men to and from work; crummie is the more popular term.
1971		M. Tak Truck Talk 26: Candy wagon: a lightweight truck.
2002		(con. 1950s) M. Hillman in Dallesisian Online 🌐 My Dad was hired to work on the Dam and Bridge, which he did for a few years. He drove the candy wagon (Nitro truck), and blew up things.

see under drop v.¹

see under rock n.