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:
"At the very least, I wanted to come down, lay a candle... to make an appearance," said the 25-year-old, who studies fashion.
From Barron's ● Oct. 8, 2026
Several parishioners had come into the church to light a candle and to pray, he said, with Hannah's photo displayed on its door.
From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026
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
According to a video shared Monday on Threads, a Parton fan who planned to lay flowers at the star found that it was marred by what seemed to be shards from a broken candle.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 2, 2026
Each night we lighted one more candle as Eusie read the story of the Maccabees.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
Yet with the bull market ready to blow out four candles this week, surging Treasury yields have been raising doubts on Wall Street about how much further stocks can climb from here.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 11, 2026
To determine their intrinsic brightness, astronomers use other standard candles, such as Cepheid stars, in the galaxies nearby.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 4, 2026
The Marriott chain sells candles and diffusers with “the signature scent of your favorite hotels,” including subsidiary brands Ritz-Carlton, St. Regis, Westin, Sheraton and Courtyard.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 3, 2026
Crowds arrived several hours before the funeral began to light candles outside the church, accompanied by a choir on a loudspeaker in the sunshine.
From BBC ● Sep. 7, 2026
The three tunnels look the same—made of stone and lit by candles with no end in sight.
From "The Manifestor Prophecy" by Angie Thomas
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
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
While psychiatrists candled the accused's head, the city focused on its ugly old Cook County jail.
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
Aside from an earful of candle wax, candling could lead to infection, burns to the ear canal or eardrum--or burning hair.
From Time Magazine Archive
Examining eggs to determine their quality is called "candling."
From Every Step in Canning by Grace Viall Gray
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