eye candy
nounEtymology From eye + candy. Early-1980’s US TV and advertising jargon, perhaps influenced by earlier nose candy (“cocaine”).
1
A very attractive person or persons, or the salient visible physical attributes thereof.
- I'm going to the beach to check out some eye candy.
- But despite his claims that NBC would become “the class act,” not all of [Fred] Silverman's changes seemed aimed in direction of excellence. Unfortunately his rationale for eschewing exploitative “eye candy” seemed to apply to more serious sex-related ventures as well.1980, Geoffrey Cowan, See No Evil, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 309:
1 more example
- In 1986, Schubach hired a petite 23-year-old named Patricia Schmidt to be his assistant. She told us that her main job was to be “eye candy,” but her other duties included answering the phones. That put her in regular contact with Epstein.2025 December 16, “Scams, Schemes, Ruthless Cons: The Untold Story of How Jeffrey Epstein Got Rich”, in The New York Times Magazine, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC:
2
Broadly Any object or sight with considerable visual appeal.
- DirectX 10 promises an almost obscene step up in the level of eye candy you can expect from an A-list game, which is the great news. The bad news is, you'll need a new videocard to get those gorgeous graphics.2007, Maximum PC, number Winter, page 3:
- Related terms
- arm candy, brain candy, candy girl, ear candy, easy on the eyes, mind candy, nose candy, sight for sore eyes