arm candy

American  

Slang.

1. a very attractive person who accompanies someone on a date, as at a public event, but is not romantically involved with that person.

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Etymology

Origin of arm candy

1990–95

Example Sentences

Just two years after “Cruise” debuted, duo Maddie & Tae had heard enough about arm candy and daisy dukes to satirize the subgenre’s views on women with 2015’s “Girl in a Country Song.”

From Salon • May 16, 2025

My daughter was getting married, and I needed an escort — arm candy.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 10, 2023

Were we just weeks away from Melinda being photographed with Hollywood’s current go-to male arm candy, Pete Davidson?

From Slate • May 4, 2021

They have been treated like fakes and posers and interlopers and arm candy.

From The Verge • Dec. 21, 2017

It is a superior thriller, tense and twisty, and Cranston is predictably excellent, but Kruger is sharp and spirited, more than holding her own in a role that could easily have just been arm candy.

From The Guardian • Sep. 11, 2016