candy striper

noun

Informal.

1. a person, often a teenager, who works as a volunteer in a hospital.

Word History and Origins

Origin of candy striper¹

First recorded in 1960–65; so called from the red and white striped uniform often worn

Example Sentences

He piloted the Samaritans’ battered SUV while Kocourek, who was a hospital candy striper when she was a girl, pointed out rock formations and changes to the landscape.

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The scene between Trevor and a candy striper, apparently gay himself but old enough to have passed through the tunnel of adolescence, is as frankly and thoughtfully written as you wish everything else were.

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“I inherited a paper route, I sold magazines, had lemonade stands, I was a candy striper and into fund-raising,” she told The New York Times in 2011.

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The turkey’s “small, raw-looking head” reminds her of a wounded war veteran, the “first fully naked man / I ever saw, when I was a candy striper … I didn’t want to see, / and yet I saw.”

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“I used to be a candy striper in a pulmonary ward. That cough does not sound good.”

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