Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A hard, chewy candy made of brown sugar or molasses and butter.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun engraving Taffy.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun uncountable a type of confectionery made by boiling sugar (or treacle, etc) with butter or milk, then cooling the mixture so that it becomes hard
  • noun countable a small, individual piece of toffee

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun caramelized sugar cooled in thin sheets

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Alteration of taffy.]

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Examples

  • The toffee is a bit of an accquired taste - some kids come back for more, some chuck it away and we find it days later gently deliquescing and looking remarkable like a dying slug.

    Top Ten Weirdest Halloween Handouts » E-Mail 2009

  • The toffee is a bit of an accquired taste - some kids come back for more, some chuck it away and we find it days later gently deliquescing and looking remarkable like a dying slug.

    Top Ten Weirdest Halloween Handouts 2009

  • Scatter strips of crystallized ginger and cumin toffee cashews over the plate.

    Star chefs, star recipes, single burners 2009

  • Just as frogs use glucose, Arctic brine shrimp and many cold-tolerant insects use a sugar called trehalose, which forms a syrup as thick as stretchy toffee, is even better at lowering freezing points and stopping dehydration than glycerol or glucose.

    Archive 2004-09-01 2004

  • In Britain the word toffee now appears to be used to describe both forms.

    Archive 2005-12-01 2005

  • As an aside, the word toffee is comparatively new (19th century), and in Wales the sweet would have been known as cyflaith, ffanni, and most commonly taffi (taffy).

    Archive 2005-12-01 2005

  • As an aside, the word toffee is comparatively new (19th century), and in Wales the sweet would have been known as cyflaith, ffanni, and most commonly taffi (taffy).

    'Noson Gyflaith' - Welsh toffee making 2005

  • In Britain the word toffee now appears to be used to describe both forms.

    'Noson Gyflaith' - Welsh toffee making 2005

  • There's sugar in toffee and in jam, and they're hot, leastways they're hot to be made.

    Little Miss Peggy: Only a Nursery Story 1887

  • I wonder if using a tart type of apple and adding in toffee chips would be as amazing as my brain thinks it would be. jenn Oct 2 oh, i so know what i’m making tomorrow! thank you so much!!!!

    Apple Pie Cookies | Baking Bites 2009

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