toffee

American  

[taw-fee, tof-ee] / ˈtɔ fi, ˈtɒf i /

Sometimes toffy

noun

toffees plural

1. a brittle or chewy brown candy made of sugar or molasses boiled down with butter, often mixed with nuts.

2. British. taffy.

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toffee British  

/ ˈtɒfɪ /

noun

1. a sweet made from sugar or treacle boiled with butter, nuts, etc

2. informal (preceded by can't) to be incompetent at a specified activity

   he can't sing for toffee

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• toffees
  plural

Etymology

Origin of toffee

First recorded in 1860–65; the earlier variants toughy, tuffy were first recorded in 1825–30 ; southern British dialect form of original northern British dialect taffy ( def. ); further origin uncertain

Compare meaning

How does toffee compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• toffee vs. caramel

Explanation

Toffee is a hard or brittle candy made from butter and sugar. Some candy bars are made by coating toffee in chocolate. Yum! Toffee is often confused with another candy with nearly the exact same ingredients, taffy. The difference is mainly in the candy-making process: taffy is pulled and stretched until it's soft and chewy. Toffee, on the other hand, won't stick in your teeth like taffy, because it is boiled, shaped, and allowed to harden into a delicious, glossy slab.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

toffee toffees

Rodrigo confessed her love of British culture throughout, including Marks and Spencer's Colin the Caterpillar and also admitted she'd got through "three sticky toffee puddings" since arriving on Worthy Farm.

From BBC ● Jun. 29, 2025

Slabs of roast pork, skin as brittle and sweet as toffee and bathed in vinegar garlic sauce at Dominican spots in Washington Heights.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 14, 2024

That version of the recipe was a hit, but I’m a much bigger fan of toffee than I am of chocolate, so I wanted to create something that I would love as well.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 12, 2024

A lot of coffee beans have notes of vanilla already, so a baked treat like these fan-favorite coffee & toffee blondies would be well served swapping the 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt for vanilla salt.

From Salon ● Sep. 6, 2023

He opened a foil-wrapped toffee and said, “Are you alone?”

From "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini

The real Quality Street chocolates, toffees and sweets are still made at the same site in Halifax, West Yorkshire, where they were first manufactured in 1936.

From BBC ● Dec. 21, 2021

In that same room there was a tin that seemed never to run out of toffees in shiny wrappers.

From The New Yorker ● May 7, 2016

The Mary Jane was one of the earliest toffees, and its beginnings in Paul Revere’s former home is beyond the greatness any toffee can reasonably expect.

From Salon ● Apr. 9, 2016

A late goal from Brian Oviedo sent the toffees up to fifth and Man U down to ninth in the Premier League.

From Children's BBC ● Dec. 5, 2013

“Accio! Accio! Accio!” she shouted, and toffees zoomed from all sorts of unlikely places, including the lining of George’s jacket and the turn-ups of Fred’s jeans.

From "Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire" by J. K. Rowling