toffee
Americannoun
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a brittle or chewy brown candy made of sugar or molasses boiled down with butter, often mixed with nuts.
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British. taffy.
noun
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a sweet made from sugar or treacle boiled with butter, nuts, etc
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informal (preceded by can't) to be incompetent at a specified activity
he can't sing for toffee
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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:
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
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Global packaged foods giant Nestle rejigged its Toffee Crisp range and Blue Riband recipes in the U.K. so much that the products no longer could be called ‘chocolate’ at the end of last year.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 17, 2026
They battled through the contest and had only one shot on target, which came in the sixth minute when former Toffee Alex Iwobi's caressed shot was batted out by Pickford.
From BBC • Dec. 19, 2023
Toffee is too sweet for its own good.
From Salon • Apr. 11, 2022
Portuguese boss Vitor Pereira was also in contention for the job, but former Toffee Wayne Rooney ruled himself out.
From BBC • Jan. 28, 2022
He still hadn’t forgotten Dudley and the Ton-Tongue Toffee.
From "Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire" by J. K. Rowling
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
