candy pullingn.
/ˈkandɪ ˌpʊlɪŋ/, U.S. /ˈkændi ˌpʊlɪŋ/ U.S. Now chiefly historical.
A social gathering for young people at which taffy (or occasionally other confectionery) is made and eaten.Taffy is made by pulling or twisting a sweet mixture to make it tough and light-coloured. Candy pullings were popular in the mid 18th cent., esp. in the period around Christmas and New Year.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > social event > social gathering > [noun] > gatherings for specific activity
apple paring1656
house raising1704
quilting1768
bee1769
sing-song1769
reading party1781
rocking1786
cotton-picking1795
rolling1819
picking bee1828
candy pulling1834
candy pull1845
taffy-join1854
barn-raising1856
taffy pulling1863
coffee shop1880
log-rolling1883
taffy pull1883
petting party1920
play date1975
the world > food and drink > food > food manufacture and preparation > preparation for table or cooking > preparing confectionery > [noun] > occasion of making taffy
candy pulling1834
candy pull1845
taffy-join1854
taffy pulling1863
taffy pull1883
1834 New-Eng. Mag. July 46 (heading) A Kentucky candy pulling.
1854 B. P. Shillaber Life & Sayings Mrs. Partington 20 Candy pullings, with their customary consequences to broad shirt-collars and cheeks sweeter than molasses.
1897 Scribner's Mag. Dec. 762/2 We all drove over to Pinehollow last night to a candy-pulling.
1949 F. Gipson Hound-dog Man (1980) 4 Blackie packed his party clothes along wherever he went; he never could tell when he'd run onto a dance or a candy pulling.
2000 G. B. Holmes Time to Reconcile xi. 81 One night Mother let me go to a candy-pulling at the Cash house.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2020; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
<
n.1834