cupcake
Americannoun
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a small cake, the size of an individual portion, baked in a cup-shaped mold.
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Older Slang.
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a sexually attractive young woman.
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a beloved girl or woman.
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noun
Etymology
Origin of cupcake
Explanation
A cupcake is a small, sweet baked good topped with frosting. You might bake cupcakes for your best friend's birthday. When you make cupcakes, you mix up cake batter and instead of baking it in large pans, pour it into the small, paper-lined indentations in a cupcake or muffin pan. Some people prefer cupcakes to cakes, because they're the perfect serving size. In Britain and Australia, cupcakes are called "fairy cakes." Cupcake is an American English word dating from the 19th century.
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.
“I brought a cupcake — vegan vanilla. Bet it tastes pretty rancid,” Lanier said during closings, brandishing the baked good during an extended metaphor.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 25, 2026
The sensory mismatch — a coconut-flavored “potato” — is a little kid’s dream, like the Jelly Belly “Bean Boozled” pack or a cupcake that looks like a hamburger.
From Salon • Mar. 17, 2026
Nor need they feel beholden to cupcake makers, cobblers, tax preparers or manufacturers of cheap lingerie.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 9, 2026
You can’t say Redondo Union girls’ volleyball coach Tommy Chaffins is playing a cupcake schedule.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 8, 2025
I spent all of Thursday afternoon working on my cereal cupcake recipe.
From "From the Desk of Zoe Washington" by Janae Marks
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.
