Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. of a person, weak, ineffectual.

1953		L. Uris Battle Cry (1964) 185: ‘Candy-ass Marines,’ our boys would shout.
1958		(con. 1950) E. Frankel Band of Brothers 54: We’re not candy-ass gyrenes. We’re soldiers.
1967–8		Baker et al. CUSS 94: Candy-ass Frightened.
1970		D. Ponicsan Last Detail 121: Is this the original Bad-Ass or is this some candy-ass seaman playing Scrabble at the goddam nurses’ home?
1987		(con. c.1967) J. Ferrandino Firefight 155: Who is this doctor, some candyass draftee?
1998		(con. 1986) G. Pelecanos Sweet Forever 67: When the jungle heats up and boils over, you’re gonna see a lot of those candy-ass National Guardsmen dead in the street.
2001		N. Tosches Where Dead Voices Gather (ms.) 361: Elvis, with his candy-ass ways, could not kill rock ’n’ roll.
2011		D.R. Pollock Devil All the Time 141: ‘He’s been teasing Lenora, him and a couple of his candy-ass buddies’.
2013		T. Black ‘I Want Candy’ in Killing Time in Las Vegas [ebook] I hate men who say sorry. Man, you’re one fucking candyass bastard.

2. of a job, examination etc, insufficiently challenging, too easy.

1967		E. Shepard Doom Pussy 142: We flew road-recce missions [...] It was a kind of a candy-ass war for us.
1977		L. Heinemann Close Quarters (1987) 250: Coming out here after it’s all over is candy-ass.
1981		H. Gould Fort Apache, The Bronx 200: I ain’t freezin’ on no candyass fuckin’ picket line.
1991		B. Hamper Rivethead (1992) 52: No whiny art-fag lip service here. No candy-ass dime-a-rhyme.
2009		J. Stahl Pain Killers 92: But taunting was candy-ass, considering the crime.
2017		T. Pluck Bad Boy Boogie [ebook] ‘Newark ain’t candy-ass Nutley’.

3. pathetic, obsessive, dedicated, e.g. a candy-ass fan.

1987

(con. 1967) E. Spencer Welcome to Vietnam (1989) 25: I’m a candy-ass nature lover.