candy-coatv.
/ˈkandɪkəʊt/, U.S. /ˈkændiˌkoʊt/ 1. transitive. To coat (something, esp. an item of food) with sugar or another sweet substance. Cf. sugar-coat vb. at sugar n. Compounds 3a.
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the world > food and drink > food > food manufacture and preparation > preparation for table or cooking > garnishing > garnish [verb (transitive)] > ice or coat with sugar
ice?1600
frost1827
sugar-coat1870
spin1883
pipe1894
candy-coat1930
1930 Univ. Pennsylvania Law Rev. & Amer. Law Reg. 78 1031 A German patent for candy-coating liquids by a freezing process.
1959 Observer 29 Nov. 10/2 Apricots..insist on asserting their natural character, candy-coat them as you may.
2007 Globe & Mail (Toronto) (Nexis) 28 Aug. s1 It's going to cost him..two straight days of labour to pop the corn and candy coat it with a salty-sweet mixture.
2. transitive. figurative. To make (something difficult, unpleasant, or controversial) appear to be more tolerable, appealing, or acceptable, esp. only superficially.
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1958 Jrnl. Health, Physical Educ., Recreation Oct. 20/3 The experienced coach will candy-coat the sometimes boring fundamental phase by developing game condition drills.
1994 Mixmag June 31/2 You can't candy-coat reality, you can't pretend everything's hunky dory and all smiles when it ain't.
2014 Gay Times Apr. 82/1 I didn't try to candy-coat Like A Prayer or make it more palatable for mass consumption... I wrote what I felt.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2020; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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v.1930