candies

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of candy.

   The store stocks dozens of candies near the checkout counter.

   Bright wrappers covered the candies scattered across the table.

   Note

   Only the countable candy takes a plural. In US, Canadian and Philippine usage the mass noun stays singular, so you eat too much candy. Candies counts separate pieces or distinct kinds, as in a box of assorted candies. The rave-scene bead bracelets are a mass noun too, so they are candy rather than candies.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of candy.

   The bakery candies whole chestnuts for its signature dessert.

   He candies the lemon slices before arranging them on the tart.

   Note

   The verb works in two directions. A cook candies peel or chestnuts by coating them in sugar syrup. A syrup or a preserved fruit can also candy on its own, when sugar crystals form in or on it, or when it sets into a solid, candylike mass. In that intransitive use no one is doing anything; the sugar is.

   Left too long on the heat, the syrup candies into a hard mass.

   The jam candies around the rim if the jar is left open.

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