Also 7 comfect. [ad. med.L. confectum, confecta, subst. uses of the pa. pple.: see prec. and COMFIT. Cf. It. confetto sweetmeat; also Ger. confect.] A sweetmeat made of fruit, seed, etc., preserved in sugar; a comfit.
1587. Fleming, Contn. Holinshed, III. 1355/1. It hailed small confects, rained rosewater, and snew an artificiall kind of snow.
1614. Overbury, Char., ix. Amorist, Muske comfects.
1662. H. Stubbe, Ind. Nectar, iii. 34. Cacao … roasted, and made into Confects.
1712. trans. Pomet’s Hist. Drugs, I. 2. Use it like Caraway-seeds for Confects and Sugar-plums.
1727–51. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., Confects are reduced to eight kinds, viz. liquid confects, marmalades, jellies, pasts, dry confects, conserves, candies, and dragees, or sugar-plums.
1889. A. C. Doyle, Micah Clarke, i. 9. She made salves and eyewaters, powders and confects, cordials and persico.
