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.

---

Etymology

Origin of arm candy

1990–95

Example Sentences

I was recently in New Orleans, where I was on a walking tour with a woman and her husband; he was wearing a T-shirt that read, "It's not easy being my wife's arm candy."

From Salon • Mar. 30, 2023

Lyanna Mormont, my new personal hero, eviscerates Jon in the Great Hall for leaving Winterfell as King in the North and returning as Daenerys’ arm candy.

From The Verge • Apr. 15, 2019

But if many of Britney’s past flames suggested lapses in her self-esteem, Asghari—chiseled, sensibly bearded, impossibly handsome—is the arm candy of a woman more self-possessed than ever.

From Slate • Sep. 24, 2018

The studio, known primarily for gangster melodramas led by male stars such as Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney, often typecast her as arm candy or in ingenue roles, often playing opposite fellow newcomer Flynn.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 1, 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