noun
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a rich cake containing mixed dried fruit, lemon peel, nuts, etc
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slang a person considered to be eccentric or insane
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of fruitcake
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:
And TV offers more cooking shows than a fruitcake offers nuts.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
His favourite treat, however, is the Simnel cake, a traditional fruitcake typically made with a layer of either marzipan or almond paste and associated with Lent.
From BBC ● Mar. 27, 2026
A quip attributed to former "Tonight Show" host Johnny Carson has it that "There is only one fruitcake in the entire world, and people keep sending it to each other."
From Salon ● Dec. 17, 2024
But by 1989, a survey by Mastercard found that fruitcake was the least favorite gift of 75% of those polled.
From Salon ● Dec. 17, 2024
The fruitcake stayed perfect in the tin and the apple juice was fizzy but not totally undrinkable and the dried apricots were fine, as was the huge thick slab of chocolate wrapped in brown paper.
From "How I Live Now" by Meg Rosoff
As Dean Harper, founder at the private chef services brand Harper Fine Dining, notes, "There is a community in America that annually gathers to launch fruitcakes into extinction."
From Salon ● Dec. 17, 2023
For many monastic communities, especially those devoted to contemplative life and with vows of poverty, producing cookies, fruitcakes, even beer for sale is the only means to keep the lights on.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 17, 2023
Maybe fruitcake has its reputation as a bad tasting brick because a few bad fruitcakes have sullied its name.
From Salon ● Dec. 17, 2023
I love to feature the single-origin spices of the companies Diaspora or Burlap & Barrel in my fruitcakes.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 17, 2022
It makes me dream I’m eternally rolling icing for fruitcakes, believe it or not.
From "Code Name Verity" by Elizabeth Wein
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.
