sugar n.4
1. (also sugar lump, sugarpie) a general term of endearment, can be used of and to either sex.
| [ | ![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Love’s Mistress IV i: Father, sweet Hony-sugar-candy dad, indeed, indeed you shall]. |
| [ | | ‘To the Tune of the Beginning of the World’ in Wit Restor’d (1817) 292: Good morrow, my honey my suggar-candy, / My litle pretty mouse]. |
| [ | ![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Disappointment I iii: I call him Cooney, cock-a-pigeon, sugar-plum, cock-a-dandy and all the sweet things I can think of]. |
| ‘Sugar’ 🎵 You’ll find the answer if you take a look / In Mr. Webster’s dictionary book. / The name is sugar! / I call my baby my sugar. | |
| Thieves Like Us (1999) 191: Doggone, sugar. | |
| Dust Tracks On a Road (1995) 600: Hey, Sugar! What’s on de rail for de lizard? | |
| Dly News (NY) 26 Nov. 45/2: ‘Sugarpie’ tells us that her best girlfriend is in love with her best beau. | |
| St Louis Post-Dispatch (MO) 20 Jan. 42/2: American soldiers infrequently call each other ‘darling’ or ’sugarpie’. | |
| Long Wait (1954) 73: Maybe, sugar, maybe. | |
| Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, CA) 12 Feb. 20/1: ‘You’re my darlin’ sugar lump’. | |
| Crazy Kill 26: I’ll get him Val, sugar, Oh God —. | |
| [song title] ‘I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)’ . | |
| Howard Street 98: We gon’ really live then, sugar. Git married and everything. | |
| ‘A Revolutionary Tale’ in King Black Short Story Anthol. (1972) 23: Of course not, sugar lump. | |
| (con. 1950s) Whoreson 147: ‘Listen, sugar,’ I said softly. | |
| Decadence in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 21: Oh sugar I’m just aching for your . . . | |
| (con. 1970s) King Suckerman (1998) 66: Hey, sugar, you datin’ tonight? | |
| Robbers (2001) 215: I said tell me the truth, sugarpie, what you think? [Ibid.] 237: Whatever works, sugar, you know me. | |
| Nature Girl 106: ‘What was it, like a cookbook?’ ‘Not exactly, sugar.’. | |
| Gutshot Straight [ebook] ‘Takes three to four weeks, sugar’. | |
| Whiplash River [ebook] ‘Harrigan Quinn. Call me Harry.’ He gave Gina a wink. ‘Or sweetheart. Or sugar pie’. | |
| Price You Pay 114: Oh sugar he [i.e. a divorced husband] is gone like the wind. | |
| ‘Broken’ in Broken 5: ‘Sugar [...] Can you hear me darlin’?’. |
2. (orig. US, also sug) an attractive woman.
| in Tarheel Talk (1956) 298: There would have been no Shugar there for you except Some of the Rutherford Ladies. | |
| A Thousand and One Afternoons [ebook] ‘Soon as I see they're heading for a dumb time I say “razzberry.” And off your little sugar toddles’. | |
| ‘Joe Prep’ 🎵 Is she sweet? Is she hot? A real woman, this new sugar. | |
| Don’t Get Me Wrong (1956) 7: Was that sugar at Matehuala right or was she? | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). | |
| One Lonely Night 64: The cud-chewing switchboard sugar smiled between chomps. | |
| Doom Pussy 66: Never one to let a sugar, or sug, get away, he walked over to whisper a little sweet talk. | |
| Dict. of Invective (1991) 14: Women, again, often are characterized as edible objects. Cookie, cupcake, lamb chop, sugar, sweetie pie, (hot) tamale, tart, and tomato. |
3. (US black, also sugar lump) an attractive man.
| Detroit Free Press (MI) 21 Aug. 70/2: She was fascinated with the slim-waisted, olive-skinned, white-toothed ‘Sugar-Pie,’ with his sophisticated chatter and his nimble, tireless feet. | |
| Jonah’s Gourd Vine (1995) 48: You are my dolling sugar lump. | |
| Wide Boys Never Work (1938) 148: My old sugar – my old boyfriend, that’s who I mean. | |
| Queens’ Vernacular 191: sugar 1. one’s current heartthrob. | |
| Runnin’ Down Some Lines 256: sugar [...] 3. Attractive male. | |
| Plainclothes Naked (2002) 21: She’d never go out with you. She hates losers. She likes her sugar with class. |
4. (US) ‘sweet-talk’, persuasive deception.
| Tough Guy [ebook] You had to give a storekeeper a hunk of sugar if you were smart. | |
 | Always on the Run 16: [P]eople come up and tell me how much they love the Dolphins [...] I tell them, ‘Thank you,’ but that doesn’t seem very sufficient. At the same time, I don’t want to hand them back the same sugar. |
5. (US black) a kiss.
| Tambourines to Glory I vi: buddy: I said something I want, baby! ... Come on, give me a little sugar – right now! laura: Buddy! ... We’ve got to eat. buddy: Kiss now- eat later! | |
| Hy Lit’s Unbelievable Dict. of Hip Words 18: give me some sugar – Give me a kiss. | |
| Queens’ Vernacular. | |
| High Cotton (1993) 23: Women in pink hats and white gloves. ‘Give me some sugar,’ they said when they bore down on children to pass out kisses. | |
| ‘A dirty little story’ in eye mag. 8 July 🌐 Then they enjoyed a bit of curly green, a bit of fish, a bit of giblet pie, a bit of mutton, a bit of sugar and he hit the kitten. |
6. (US black) diabetes.
| Drylongso 51: I have sugar. Many of my people had it and some have it now. [...] I’m a diabetic. |
In compounds
(US) anyone or anything attractive, pleasing; also a direct term of address.
| ‘You Ain’t Treatin’ Mr Right’ 🎵 Oh, sugar babe, you ain’t a-treatin’ me right! | |
| in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 79: Have you got that photo of your sugar baby? | |
| (con. 1944) Big War 356: Don’t you worry about that, sugar-doll. | |
| (con. WWII) Barren Beaches of Hell 151: Why so touchy, sugar puss? | |
| Scene (1996) 69: A real sugar-baby, the Olds. | |
| Garden of Sand (1981) 482: The girls figure she has her a young sugar baby somewhere she spends her money on. | |
| Stand (1990) 5: Point is, sugar-babe, if we don’t get our asses in gear, we ain’t never gonna make it off’n the base. | |
| Airtight Willie and Me 39: Sugar Babies, most of you are hip that I just got up from a fall. | |
| 8 Ball Chicks (1998) 186: Hey, sugar baby, how are those girls doing? |
a relationship between an attractive younger person *usu. female) and a wealthier older one (usu. male); the relationshyip is paid but not in a cash fee, a la prostitution, but in the form of gifts or rent payments, etc.
| https://washingtoncitypaper.com 20 Dec. 🌐 . | |
| Wikipedia 30 Jan. 🌐 Sugar dating, also called sugaring, is a relationship of an older wealthy person and a younger person [...] Payment can be received by way of money, gifts like designer goods, jewellery, support or other material benefits in exchange for companionship or a dating-like relationship. The person who receives the gifts is called a sugar baby, while their paying partner is called a sugar daddy or sugar momma. |
see separate entry.
1. see sense 1 above.
2. see sense 3 above.
see sense 1 above.
(US campus) a letter from one’s sweetheart.
| Philadelphia Enquirer (PA) 19 Oct. 102/3: [picture cap.] They’re kibitzing on his ‘sugar report’ — letter from a girl friend. | |
| You Chirped a Chinful!! n.p.: Sugar Report: Letter from your girl. | |
| Hy Lit’s Unbelievable Dict. of Hip Words 52: sugar report – A letter from your main fox. |
the vagina.
| Candy (1970) 138: He pretends he’s a weirdie [...] but he’s just trying to get into your little sugar-scoop! | |
| Central Sl. 50: sugar walls Pussy. ‘All the johns want inside my sugar walls.’. |
1. (US black) spare space used for putting up a temporary guest.
| ‘Sl. of Watts’ in Current Sl. III:2 47: Sugar shack, n. A carpeted garage which might provide extra living or sleeping space. |
2. somewhere a couple go to have sex.
| Campus Sl. Fall 8: sugar shack – place where a couple go to have sex. |
see separate entry.
In phrases
(US) to exhibiited (stereotyped) signs of effeminacy/male homosexuality.
| Busted 133: ‘[A] lot of cops think Jeff has sugar in his tank,’ he said. ‘What? Sugar in his tank? What does that mean?’ I asked, laughing. ‘Gay,’ he said. |
(US black) sweet talk.
| Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive 60: I’m gonna lay some deep sugar on her and see if it will melt. |
in love with, infatuated with.
| ‘’Arry on Fashion’ in Punch 10 Sept. 110/2: Patriotic? Well, them as talks Muggins like that to our gurls must be milks, / If it means British woolens all round when they’re sugar on showy French silks. |
(US black) an attractive male.
| Runnin’ Down Some Lines 150: Women, too, relate sex to the sweet-tasting [...] when they identify an attractive male as [...] sweet sugar. |
SE in slang uses
In compounds
see separate entry.
(S.Afr. gay) the pubic hair [resemblance].
![[SA]](/static/img/flags/sa.png "South Africa") | Gayle. |
dice [resemblance].
| (con. 1949) Big Blowdown (1999) 151: He examined the dice, turning them in his hands. Boyle grinned. ‘These your sugar cubes?’. |
see separate entries.
see under tit n.2
see under weed n.1