rock candy

American

noun

sugar in large, hard, cohering crystals.

rock candy British

noun

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

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of rock candy

First recorded in 1715–25

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.

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

It looks as if she has grown her own rock candy.

From New York Times • Mar. 13, 2017

Maybe their shoes were made out of licorice or rock candy.

From "Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key" by Jack Gantos

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023