sb. colloq. Also lollypop. [Of obscure formation: cf. lolly (north. dial.) the tongue.] a. dial. The name of a particular kind of sweetmeat, consisting chiefly of sugar or treacle, that dissolves easily in the mouth. b. pl. (formerly also collect. sing.) Sweetmeats in general.
1796. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue (ed. 3), Lollipops, sweet lozenges purchased by children.
1812. H. & J. Smith, Rej. Addr., Tale Drury Lane. And buy crisp parliament with lollypops.
1835. Marryat, Jac. Faithf., i. That in the petticoat age we may fearlessly indulge in lollipop.
1844. Disraeli, Coningsby, I. ix. The irreclaimable and hopeless votary of lollypop.
1860. All Year Round, No. 46. 459. Upright glass-cases such as country dealers keep lollypops in.
1884. Sala, Journ. due South, I. xv. (1887), 205. The consumption of lollipops [was] phenomenal.
b. fig. ‘Luscious’ literary composition.
a. 1849. [see c].
1856. T. Cholmondeley, Lett., in Atlantic Monthly (1893), LXXII. 750/2. There is no poetry, and very little or no literature. We are drenched with mawkish lollipops, and clothed in tawdry rags.
c. attrib.
1834. A. Fonblanque, Eng. under 7 Administr. (1837), III. 13. Lollipop stalls.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, xxiii. Marching with great dignity towards the stall of a neighbouring lollipop-woman.
a. 1849. H. Coleridge, Ess., II. 32. His [Dryden’s] lolly-pop adulteration of King Lear.
Hence Lollipop v. trans., to treat to lollipops.
1837. Fraser’s Mag., XV. 337. Mere children in matters of taste, fit only to be lollypopped by his ‘lady.’
