rock candy

American  

noun

1. sugar in large, hard, cohering crystals.

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rock candy British  

noun

1. Also called (in Britain and certain other countries): rock.  a hard candy, typically a long brightly-coloured peppermint-flavoured stick, sold esp in holiday resorts

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Etymology

Origin of rock candy

First recorded in 1715–25

Example Sentences

The tart fruit lingered on the palate like rock candy.

From Seattle Times • Mar. 15, 2021

X-ray crystallography saturates proteins in a salt bath solution until they form crystals akin to rock candy.

From National Geographic • Dec. 31, 2020

At first, I modeled in a schematic stem, so the spike looked a bit like a rock candy lollipop.

From Scientific American • Jun. 25, 2020

At the Candy Lady, a confectionery in Old Town, you can even buy a baggie of the blue and white rock candy the shop created for the first two seasons of the TV drama.

From Washington Post • Dec. 11, 2019

With a slam of her cleaver, she cracked rock candy into jagged pieces.

From "The Woman Warrior" by Maxine Hong Kingston