The earlier form of TOFFEE, now Scotch, North Eng., and American.
1. A sweetmeat made from sugar or treacle, with butter, etc.: see TOFFEE.
1817. R. Wilbraham, Cheshire Gloss., Taffy,… treacle thickened by boiling and made into hard cakes.
1819. R. Anderson, Cumbld. Ball. (c. 1850), 51. Now heaps o’ treagle chaps brong in, An taffey suin they meade us.
1825. Jamieson, Taffie, treacle mixed with flour, and boiled till it acquire consistency: a sweetmeat eaten only on Hallowe’en.
1864. Webster, Taffy, a kind of candy made of molasses boiled down and poured out in shallow pans.
1884. W. H. Rideing, in Harper’s Mag., March, 522/1. Is Everton tally a myth?
1890. S. J. Duncan, Social Departure, vii. 57. The steward made almond-taffy, or toffee, as Orthodocia had been brought up to pronounce it.
2. U. S. slang. Crude or vulgar compliment or flattery; ‘soft soap’; blarney.
1879. Tribune (N. Y.), 16 Sept. (Cent. Dict.). There will be a reaction, and the whole party will unite in an offering of taffy.
1894. Howells, Traveller from Altruria, 180. ‘If we learn anything at all from him, it will be because you have taught us how.’ She could not resist this bit of taffy.
1901. N. Amer. Rev., Feb., 172. At this point … we should throw in a little trade-taffy about the Blessings of Civilization.
3. attrib. and Comb., as taffy stand, stick; taffy-join, a reunion of young people for the making of taffy to which each contributes.
1854. Taffy-join [remembered in use].
1878. Cumberland Gloss., Taffy joinin’ … young people in the country sometimes assemble on a winter evening and subscribe a few pence each to buy treacle for making ‘taffy.’
1881. T. E. Brown, Foc’s’le Yarns (1889), 151. My lad with the taffystick in his fist.
1894. Hall Caine, Manxman, V. x. Break up every taffy stand in the fair, if you can’t find anything better.
