candle
Americannoun
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candles
plural
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a long, usually slender piece of tallow or wax with an embedded wick that is burned to give light.
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something resembling a candle in appearance or use.
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Optics.
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(formerly) candela.
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Also called international candle. a unit of luminous intensity, defined as a fraction of the luminous intensity of a group of 45 carbon-filament lamps: used from 1909 to 1948 as the international standard.
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a unit of luminous intensity, equal to the luminous intensity of a wax candle of standard specifications: used prior to 1909 as the international standard. c., c
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verb (used with object)
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candles,
present (3rd person singular)
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candled,
past participle, past
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candling
present participle
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to examine (eggs) for freshness, fertility, etc., by holding them up to a bright light.
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to hold (a bottle of wine) in front of a lighted candle while decanting so as to detect sediment and prevent its being poured off with the wine.
idioms
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hold a candle to, to compare favorably with (usually used in the negative).
She's smart, but she can't hold a candle to her sister.
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burn the / one's candle at both ends. burn.
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worth the candle, worth the trouble or effort involved (usually used in the negative).
Trying to win them over to your viewpoint is not worth the candle.
noun
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a cylindrical piece of wax, tallow, or other fatty substance surrounding a wick, which is burned to produce light
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physics
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another name for candela
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to exhaust oneself, esp by being up late and getting up early to work
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informal to be inferior or contemptible in comparison with
your dog doesn't hold a candle to mine
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informal not worth the price or trouble entailed (esp in the phrase the game's not worth the candle )
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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candlesimple
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candlessimple
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have candledperfect
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has candledperfect
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am candlingprogressive
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are candlingprogressive
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is candlingprogressive
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have been candlingperfect progressive
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has been candlingperfect progressive
Past
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candledsimple
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had candledperfect
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was candlingprogressive
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were candlingprogressive
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had been candlingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of candle
First recorded before 900; Middle English candel, candle, condel, Old English candel, condel, from Latin candēla, equivalent to cand(ēre) “to shine, gleam white” + -ēla noun suffix; see candid
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.
See Examples For:
It’s your job to manage both and make sure that you are not burning the candle at both ends.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 24, 2026
Moments after he blows out the candle on his cake, John’s father places a rifle in his hands.
From Salon ● Aug. 31, 2026
Argentina “doesn’t hold a candle to the greatest rivalry in sports—Barcelona vs. Real Madrid.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
The candles retail between $42 to $50 for a pair, and recently, she developed a handsome pewter candle shaver that will be released in the winter.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 9, 2026
She was a candle that had been snuffed out.
From "The Detective's Assistant" by Kate Hannigan
Dozens of tributes including cards, flowers, candles, teddy bears and pink and blue star-shaped balloons have been laid on the pavement next to the cordon.
From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026
They pulled tiny candles from pouches and lighted them, burned incense, dropped coins in the offering box and prayed.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 6, 2026
So I came home eager to remind everyone that we have something special in California, and that we should all be lighting candles on the cake celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Coastal Act.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2026
Fans gathered at the park in recent days to pay tribute to Parton, dropping off flowers, candles and balloons.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 28, 2026
Maybe the difference was the spices, the candles?
From "Not Nothing" by Gayle Forman
Unlike with most poultry, the eggs cannot be candled to check on the embryo growing inside for the 52 days between laying and hatching.
From Seattle Times ● May 5, 2022
Early on, she candled eggs for a poultry farm while he played “frisbee on the green.”
From The New Yorker ● Aug. 20, 2018
If an egghead is candled, what shows up?
From Time Magazine Archive
He candled eggs in a grocery store, became a messenger boy for a bank, a cashier's assistant in the local Morrell packing plant, finally got a scholarship to Trinity College.
From Time Magazine Archive
Grilles, panels, mirror frames, all glimmered in green and gold, and a row of lustres, each multitudinously candled, hung from the lofty ceiling.
From Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, Vol. 15 by Various
Unclear, though certificates on the walls congratulate her on her mastery of ear candling and reiki.
From New York Times ● Jan. 20, 2015
His wife, when not mothering their five boys and three girls, spent grueling days standing at a local produce house as she examined poultry eggs under a light - what they call candling.
From Washington Times ● Jun. 2, 2014
Sam Cruz, a 12-year IRS employee who works in candling, said he finds something left behind maybe two or three times for every thousand envelopes.
From Washington Post
The "ear debris" left in the candle's hollows, assumed by aficionados to be proof--however icky--that candling is doing its stuff, is nothing more than melted wax from the candle itself.
From Time Magazine Archive
The Indians call this slivering of the ice, candling.
From Winter Adventures of Three Boys by J. E. Laughlin
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.
