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cupcake

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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A photograph of a cupcake with white frosting and multicoloured sprinkles.
A cupcake.

Etymology

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From cup +‎ cake.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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cupcake (plural cupcakes)

  1. A small cake baked in a usually paper container shaped like a cup, often with icing on top.
  2. (slang) An attractive young woman.
    • 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 604:
      Whatever else this cupcake might be up to, she was no piker.
  3. (slang) A weak or effeminate man.
  4. (informal) Term of endearment.
    • 2010, Kimberly Cates, The Perfect Match:
      “Listen, cupcake,” Cash tried to soothe. “Sometimes when grownups get mad, they say things they don't mean. I'm sure your mother—”

Synonyms

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Coordinate terms

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Derived terms

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Descendants

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Translations

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Verb

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cupcake (third-person singular simple present cupcakes, present participle cupcaking, simple past and past participle cupcaked)

  1. (intransitive, slang) To flirt; to talk or act amorously or intimately.
    • 2011, Deontra Woods, Blood, Sweat and Tears, page 102:
      I watched Brian as he drove off down the street. I turned and went back inside the studio and found Len at my desk. “I saw you and Brian cupcaking out there.”
    • 2013, Michelle Robinson, Right Before My Eyes II, page 100:
      But I figured Najah was cupcaking with Johan, Chelsea was eating something that didn't match while Greg rubbed her feet, and Kalena wasn't in a space to talk or listen.
    • 2014, Zaneeya S., Overcoming My Past, page 170:
      She said, “You're always Cupcaking.” I replied, “I'm not cupcaking. I'm enjoying my conversation so hush.” David and I would stay on the phone all night and talk. It was normal for us.
    • 2015, Mahalia Levey, Promiscuous Wolf:
      “Luck is cupcaking on Myanna.”
      His eyebrows shot up. “Cupcaking?”
      “Old man.” She giggled. “Crushing. Your boy has a big time crush on Myanna.”
    • 2018, Carlos Bayne, Napkin Nights: The Crunk Chronicles:
      Let's review the tale of the tape: My best friend is being held hostage, I boosted his ride and mobile, then cupcaked with a heater-packing widow-maker.
  2. (transitive, slang, rare) To flirt with; to talk or act amorously or intimately to.
    • 2016, Janey Mack, chapter 35, in Choked Up, New York, N.Y.: Kensington Books, →ISBN, pages 247–248:
      “I have thought of nothing but you for many days.” / Leticia actually blushed. “You cupcaking me?”
    • 2016, Pippa Grant writing as Jamie Farrell, Sugared (Misfit Brides; 4)‎[1], →ISBN:
      “Quit cupcaking me, sugar.” / She was sure she was imagining the warmth in his deep, crinkly eyes, but her belly did a flip and high-fived her heart, as though she truly had succeeded in making him like her.
    • 2018, Carlos Bayne, Napkin Nights: The Crunk Chronicles, [Morrisville, N.C.]: [Lulu.com], →ISBN, Chronicle VII, Chapter 2, page 131:
      Juan winks at her. "Sorry about my language. The shock paralyzed my thinking and tongue." / She smiles brightly. "No worries. I'm a nurse. I've heard it all." / Is Juan cupcaking the She-Ra, Princess of Power?
  3. (transitive) To mash a cupcake at; to cover with cupcake.
    • 2008, T. David Lee, 108th Street, New York, N.Y.: Eloquent Books, →ISBN, pages 60, 61, 169, and 199:
      After waving and smiling a quick farewell, I turned back on my way out of the lunchroom – and ran smack into Rusty Kuznevoy, flattening his chocolate cupcake against his chest. […] Rusty saw the smirk, and I appeared to be snickering at the toughest kid in fourth grade seconds after cupcaking him. […] Maybe he’d forgotten all about being cupcaked? […] I recalled my vow of supremacy from last year, the one I’d made just before I cupcaked Rusty, and I reasoned that my science project could also bring me some redemption for the events of yesterday.
    • 2016, Rachel Hauck, A Royal Christmas Wedding (The Royal Wedding Series), Zondervan, pages 92–93:
      So Colin crouched down, allowing her to smash a slightly used cupcake against his nose. […] Avery took the aprons from him, carefully folding them so more crumbs wouldn’t fall to the already cupcaked snow.
    • 2016, Christina Hoag, Girl on the Brink, Fire and Ice, →ISBN, page 11:
      She grabs another cupcake and quickly smushes it into the side of my face. I put down the camcorder and get her back. We’re now decorated in pink and white frosting. “I want a selfie of us,” she says. I pick up the camera and record us, cupcaked faces squeezed together, as we crack up.
    • 2016, Brian King, The Laughing Cure, Skyhorse Publishing, →ISBN:
      Got any diabetes jokes you can share with readers? “I never got bullied the same as other kids—my house never got egged. It got cupcaked.” —Geoff Grant (Las Vegas, Nevada)
    • 2018, Mandy M. Roth, Act of Brotherhood (Paranormal Security®= and Intelligence® (Psi-Ops®) an Immortal Ops® World Novel), Raven Happy Hour, →ISBN:
      “[…] That was after I cupcaked him.” Dead silence greeted her. It ticked on for a few seconds as Nicolette yanked her cupcake-covered T-shirt off and tossed it onto her bathroom floor. “Are you there?” “Yes. I’m trying to figure out if I had a brain aneurysm or if I heard you right,” returned Clara. “Clara!” Nicolette squeaked. “I need your advice right now.” “On what part? The bringing-home-a-guy-to-have-sex-with or the Viking-cake bit?” “Not a Viking cake. A Viking covered in cake—erm, cupcake,” stressed Nicolette.
    • 2018, Alex Grecian, The Saint of Wolves and Butchers, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, →ISBN:
      “I cupcaked her.” “You did what?” “I cupcaked her. It was red velvet. I should’ve used a vanilla one, but I already picked a red velvet one.” “A cupcake.” “They had cupcakes for the birthday party. There was juice, too, but I didn’t have any. It had chunks.” “I don’t understand. What does that mean, you cupcaked her?” “You know, like I mashed a cupcake on her. In her face. Like at weddings and stuff.”
    • 2019 March 21, Michael Casagrande, “The story behind Alabama softball’s record 31-0 start”, in AL.com‎[2]:
      The 28th straight win to open the season was greeted with cupcakes purchased by parents who made the spring break trip to Hawaii. “We cupcaked Murph’s face,” catcher Reagan Dykes said. “He didn’t seem too happy about that.” Confirmed. “I ran away from them too,” Murphy said. “I got one in the earhole. I smelled the frosting for like 12 hours.”
  4. (transitive, slang) To handle easily and successfully.
    • 1981 January 28, Mike Fish, “College basketball — the power’s at…: UCLA rules, but ACC top conference”, in The Kansas City Times, page D-3:
      “Being an independent coach sure, I cupcaked my schedule,” said McGuire.
    • 1988 July 19, Jack Oakley, “Modified battle is for 2nd”, in The Register, volume 110, number 221, page 2B:
      After John Garr popped out, Jeff Ward cupcaked a ball to short for a forceout and Black scored.
    • 1995 April 15, Kirk Bohls, “A mere 56 years later, Aggies will take 2nd title”, in Austin American-Statesman, page C1:
      A&M also tackles Louisiana State and Tulsa and further cupcaked its campaign by arranging a game with Division I-AA Middle Tennessee State so it would have a sixth home game, moving Southwestern Louisiana back a year.
    • 2006 December 12, Keith Jarrett, “Great record might not help Tigers”, in Asheville Citizen-Times, volume 137, number 346, page E4:
      The Tigers have cupcaked their way to a 10-0 start against giant killers like Arkansas State, Monmouth and Charleston Southern.
    • 2014 August 28, Seth Stevenson, “Who’d Pay £600M to Watch This?”, in The Independent, number 8,701, page 38:
      “I cupcaked the bitch!”
    • 2022 February 14, “Suns G Landry Shamet out through All-Star break with ankle injury”, in Arizona Sports‎[3]:
      “Competitively, I want to play yesterday. I know if I had to go out there and lace ’em up and everything was on the line, like, I’m doing it 100%. … Not that I’m cupcaking it or anything but you have to be a little smarter, take care of your body.”
  5. (transitive, intransitive) To cover or be abundant with cake-like decorations such as frills.
    • 1997, Lawrence J. Taylor, The Road to Mexico, Tucson, Ariz.: The University of Arizona Press, →ISBN, page 34:
      Maeve joined them in happy admiration of the baby girl, who had just been christened with the name Genesis and was cupcaked for the occasion with endless bits of lace frill.
    • 2015, Joe Kilgore, A Farmhouse in the Rain, Winchester, Washington: Top Hat Books, published 2016:
      By nine o’clock that night the snow had begun to fall even harder. Brendon stood on the corner of 87th Street and Stony Island Avenue beneath a green canvas awning now cupcaked with a layer of white.
    • 2016 March, Catherine Lowell, The Madwoman Upstairs, Touchstone, →ISBN, page 271:
      It was no longer light, but I still could make out the front yard, which was cupcaked in snow.
    • 2016 December, David Poyer, Onslaught: The War with China—The Opening Battle, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, →ISBN, page 18:
      Ahead in the dim dawn rose the white cupcaked dome of the Capitol.
    • 2017 May 4, Stephanie Haney, “The terrifying moment a bride nearly drowns as she gets stuck under her wedding dress after jumping into water before FIVE people come to her rescue”, in MailOnline‎[4]:
      It seemed like a beautiful moment as the billowy fabric cupcaked around her lower half.
  6. (transitive, informal, rare) To feed cupcakes.
    • 1942 March 10, Fred Beck, “Farmers Market Bulletin”, in Los Angeles Times, volume LXI, page 2:
      So—we offered a cup cake a day for life to anybody who would find us a better word than the word “market.” […] She wrote to say that the Farmers Market defies description and asks why we don’t just keep on referring to it as the original Farmers Market and send the cup cakes to some home for under cup-caked children.
    • 1975 September 11, Kerrville Mountain Sun, volume 94, number 48, Kerrville, Tex., page six:
      Winnie Ellis “cupcaked” her Decorative Stitchery group and Paul Barnett baked enough of her special bran muffins for all of the Meals on Wheels recipients.
    • 2008 December 21, Kristi Patton, “Pair display a sweet taste for business”, in Penticton Western News, volume 42, number 153, Penticton, B.C., page 9, column 5:
      “We grew up here and love this community so anything that we can do to give back we will. We have taken cupcakes to the hospital, outreach groups, the SPCA and even the RCMP and firefighters have been cupcaked,” said [Raj] Singh, noting that they would even like to set up a scholarship for local students.
    • 2011 June 19, Stephanie A. O’Connell, “A baker’s delight, and that’s just icing on the cake”, in Record-Journal, 144th year, number 170, Meriden, Conn., page E4:
      Kenny started “You’ve Been Cupcaked” three years ago after she earned a following creating cakes and cupcakes for family members.
  7. (intransitive, informal) With out: to saturate by cupcakes.
    • 2007 September 26, Darry Madden, “Opening her own business is icing on the cupcake”, in The Boston Globe, volume 272, number 88, page E4:
      Ross, a pastry chef who recently moved from California, reels off half a dozen cupcake bakeries in the Santa Monica area she went to all the time, including one called “Le Cupcake” which opened last fall and prompted one food blogger to ask, “Are we cupcaked out? Is there room for yet another cupcake shop in Southern California?”
    • 2013, Coco Simon, Katie’s New Recipe (Cupcake Diaries; 13), Simon Spotlight, →ISBN, page 42:
      I love baking cupcakes, but I was starting to feel cupcaked-out.
    • 2021, Josh Lanyon, Bell, Book and Scandal: Bedknobs and Broomsticks, →ISBN:
      She slid a blue mini cupcake with green and teal sprinkles my way. “Try this Neptune’s Nibble.” I said regretfully, “I think I’m cupcaked out.”
  8. (intransitive, informal) To make cupcakes.
    • 1955 December 23, Gerald (Gunny) Gunthrup, “The Gunny Sack”, in The Oneonta Star, volume LXIV, number 657, Oneonta, N.Y., page 4:
      “I told ’em that you would bake us 30 cupcakes instead.” And so Mrs. Smith cupcaked the other night until 1 a. m.
    • 2011 August 25, Suzanne Thibeault, “500 Things Project: Thinking about cupcakes and pickles”, in TribLocal, page 12:
      And make cupcakes. I’ve cupcaked three times in the last few days.
    • 2015, Off Track Planet’s Brooklyn Travel Guide, Running Press, →ISBN:
      While many a bakery cupcaked and failed, Robicelli’s continues to withstand the test of time.

Dutch

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Etymology

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Borrowed from English cupcake.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈkʏp.keːk/
  • Audio:(file)
  • Hyphenation: cup‧cake

Noun

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cupcake m (plural cupcakes, diminutive cupcakeje n)

  1. a cupcake
    Synonym: muffin

Derived terms

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Portuguese

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Portuguese Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia pt

Etymology

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Unadapted borrowing from English cupcake.

Pronunciation

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  • (Brazil) IPA(key): /ku.piˈkej.ki/ [ku.piˈkeɪ̯.ki], /ka.piˈkej.ki/ [ka.piˈkeɪ̯.ki], (careful pronunciation) /ˈkɐp.kejk/ [ˈkɐp.keɪ̯k]
    • (Southern Brazil) IPA(key): /ku.piˈkej.ke/ [ku.piˈkeɪ̯.ke], /ka.piˈkej.ke/ [ka.piˈkeɪ̯.ke], (careful pronunciation) /ˈkɐp.kejk/ [ˈkɐp.keɪ̯k]

Noun

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cupcake m (plural cupcakes)

  1. cupcake
    Synonym: bolinho

Spanish

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Etymology

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Unadapted borrowing from English cupcake.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /kabˈkeik/ [kaβ̞ˈkei̯k]
  • IPA(key): /kobˈkeik/ [koβ̞ˈkei̯k]
  • Rhymes: -eik

Noun

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cupcake m (plural cupcakes)

  1. cupcake

Usage notes

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According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

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