cupcake

Pluralcupcakes

Formscupcakes, cupcaking, cupcaked

1. 1
   nouncountable

   An individual cake baked in a cup-shaped container, typically made of paper, with frosting often added on top.

   The bakery sells a chocolate cupcake topped with raspberry buttercream.

   Each guest decorated their own cupcakes at the party.

   Note

   A plain compound of cup and cake, named for the cup-shaped case, usually paper, that the batter bakes in. The slang nouns and verbs built on the word lean on this one: its sweetness, its smallness, its softness. Anna Louie Sussman's 2009 New York Times piece "Yes, We Speak Cupcake" shows how far the word could stretch, even into the name of a language.

2. 2
   nouncolloquialcountable

   An affectionate name used for a loved one, partner, or child.

   Thanks for breakfast, cupcake. You always know how to start my day.

   Don't worry, cupcake, everything is going to be fine.

   Similarsweetheart, honey, sweetie, darling

3. 3
   nounslangcountable

   An attractive or good-looking young woman.

   The new intern is a real cupcake, and half the office noticed.

   He spent the night trying to impress the cupcakes at the bar.

   Similarbabe, hottie, looker

   Note

   Slang that sizes a woman up by her looks and borrows the cake's sweetness for her appeal. It usually refers to her rather than addressing her. Thomas Pynchon's Against the Day (2006) writes "Whatever else this cupcake might be up to, she was no piker." Keep it to casual or fictional voices, because said of a stranger it can sound dismissive. Spoken to a loved one, the word becomes the pet name.

4. 4
   nounslangcountable

   A man regarded as weak or effeminate.

   His teammates teased him as a cupcake whenever practice got tough.

   The drill instructor had no patience for cupcakes in his unit.

   Similarwimp, weakling, softie

   Note

   The same sweetness, turned into an insult. Applied to a man, the softness of the cake becomes a charge of weakness. It is slang meant to sting, so it belongs to teasing or to a character's dialogue, not to neutral description. Only context separates it from the word for an attractive woman, which has the identical form and a nearly opposite intent.

5. 5
   verbslangintransitive

   To flirt, behaving or speaking in an amorous, intimate manner.

   Teenagers cupcake by text now instead of passing notes in class.

   They were cupcaking on the porch swing until well past midnight.

   Similarflirt

   Note

   Slang flirting that takes a preposition rather than an object. People are cupcaking with someone, or cupcaking on the person they fancy, and a pair can simply be cupcaking. In Mahalia Levey's Promiscuous Wolf (2015), a puzzled listener asks "Cupcaking?" and is told it means crushing, a sign the verb still feels new. Put the person straight after the verb and you have its transitive twin.

6. 6
   verbcolloquialintransitive

   To prepare and bake cupcakes.

   The kids cupcake whenever they have a free weekend.

   She spent the holiday cupcaking for the entire neighborhood.

   Similarbake

   Note

   No object is needed, because the cupcakes are understood. In Gerald Gunthrup's 1955 column in The Oneonta Star, Mrs. Smith simply "cupcaked the other night until 1 a.m." The verb can also stretch to the trade itself. Off Track Planet's Brooklyn Travel Guide (2015) observes that "many a bakery cupcaked and failed," meaning that they tried the cupcake business and went under.

7. 7
   verbtransitive or intransitive

   To cover with frills and cake-like decorations, or to be abundantly decorated in that style.

   Bakers love to cupcake their displays with elaborate frills.

   The ballroom was cupcaked with so much frilly trim that it felt overdone.

   Similardecorate, festoon, adorn

   Note

   Snow does most of the work here. Awnings, front yards and the dome of the Capitol are cupcaked with or in white, piled up like frosting. The verb appears almost entirely as a past participle. It can describe fabric too, as with the christened baby "cupcaked for the occasion with endless bits of lace frill" in Lawrence J. Taylor's The Road to Mexico (1997).

8. 8
   verbslangtransitive

   To handle a task or challenge easily and successfully.

   Experienced climbers cupcake routes that intimidate newcomers.

   She cupcaked the negotiation and walked away with everything she wanted.

   Similarace, nail

   Oppositebotch, fumble

   Note

   A sports-desk verb. A team cupcakes its schedule or its campaign by filling it with soft opponents, as Kirk Bohls wrote of Texas A&M in 1995. Teams also cupcake their way to a winning start. In baseball a batter can cupcake a ball, hitting it softly to short. The usual objects are the schedule, the season or the ball, rather than a task in general.

9. 9
   verbslangtransitive

   To flirt with someone; to speak or behave amorously or intimately toward a person.

   Charmers like him cupcake whoever happens to be standing nearest.

   “I have thought of nothing but you for many days.” / Leticia actually blushed. “You cupcaking me?”

   2016, Janey Mack, Choked Up

   Similarwoo

   Note

   Here the person being flirted with stands directly after the verb, with no with or on. The use is rare and lives mostly in dialogue, typically as a teasing challenge. Janey Mack's Choked Up (2016) has "You cupcaking me?" and Pippa Grant's Sugared (2016) has "Quit cupcaking me, sugar." The looser construction belongs to the intransitive flirting verb.

10. 10
    verbcolloquialtransitive

    To give cupcakes to a person or animal as food.

    Parents who cupcake their toddlers at every meal regret it later.

    Kenny started “You’ve Been Cupcaked” three years ago after she earned a following creating cakes and cupcakes for family members.

    2011, Stephanie A. O’Connell, “A baker’s delight, and that’s just icing on the cake”

    Note

    Less about feeding than about treating: to cupcake people is to bring them cupcakes as a gift or kindness. Kristi Patton's 2008 report says that "even the RCMP and firefighters have been cupcaked," and one baker named her venture "You've Been Cupcaked." The word is most at home in the passive, with the pleased recipient as the subject.

11. 11
    verbcolloquialintransitive

    With out, to become saturated with or completely full of cupcakes.

    Guests tend to cupcake out long before the main course arrives.

    She cupcaked out at the fair and skipped dinner entirely.

    Note

    Always paired with out, and almost always used for a state rather than an action. You feel cupcaked out, or simply are cupcaked out, after one too many. It is sometimes hyphenated, as in Coco Simon's Katie's New Recipe (2013), where a keen baker is "starting to feel cupcaked-out." The word describes being fed up with cupcakes, not being ill from them.

12. 12
    verbtransitive

    To mash a cupcake at someone or something; to cover it with cupcake.

    Rowdy guests cupcake each other once the cake is cut.

    He cupcaked the referee in protest after the call.

    Note

    Food-fight vocabulary, formed the way egg became a verb for pelting a house. Brian King's The Laughing Cure (2016) makes the parallel explicit: "my house never got egged. It got cupcaked." The verb is most at home in the passive or as a participle, as in the "already cupcaked snow" of Rachel Hauck's A Royal Christmas Wedding. It describes what has been hit and smeared rather than the throw itself.

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