[f. prec. + -Y: see -ERY. In all the senses often wrongly spelt -ary, by confusion with CONFECTIONARY a. and sb.]
1. Things made or sold by a confectioner; a collective name for sweetmeats and confections.
[1545. Raynold, Byrth Mankynde, 72. Ambre, muske, frankencense, gallia muscata, and confection nere (sic).]
1769. Mrs. Raffald, Eng. Housekpr. (1778), p. ii. The receipts for the confectionary are such as I daily sell in my own shop.
1791. Mrs. Radcliffe, Rom. Forest, xi. He pressed her to partake of a variety of confectioneries.
Mod. Stalls on which all sorts of cheap confectionery were displayed.
b. A course of sweetmeats at dinner.
1847. Disraeli, Tancred, V. ii. After confectionary … the chieftains praised God.
2. The art and business of a confectioner.
1872. Yeats, Hist. Comm., 219. Gingerbread making and confectionery are now separate departments of the baker’s art. [See CONFECTIONARY B. 4.]
3. A confectioner’s shop.
In mod. Dicts.
4. attrib., as confectionery shop, etc.
1801. Mar. Edgeworth, Angelina, x. (1832), 61. Mrs. Bertrand kept a large confectionary and fruit shop.
1825. J. Neal, Brother Jon., II. 342. Such … as were to be had of the confectionary shops.
