"candy striper" meaning in English

See candy striper in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: candy stripers [plural], candy-striper [alternative], candystriper [alternative]
Etymology: First appears in the US c. 1944, from candy stripe + -er, due to the red-and-white striped jumpers worn by hospital volunteers, which resembled stick candy (being candy-striped); originally worn by a group of high-school girls who volunteered as hospital workers at East Orange General Hospital in New Jersey. Etymology templates: {{suffix|en|candy stripe|er<id:relational>}} candy stripe + -er Head templates: {{en-noun|head=candy striper}} candy striper (plural candy stripers)
  1. (US) A volunteer worker in a hospital or hospice. Tags: US Related terms: candy girl, candy stripe

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "candy stripe",
        "3": "er<id:relational>"
      },
      "expansion": "candy stripe + -er",
      "name": "suffix"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "First appears in the US c. 1944, from candy stripe + -er, due to the red-and-white striped jumpers worn by hospital volunteers, which resembled stick candy (being candy-striped); originally worn by a group of high-school girls who volunteered as hospital workers at East Orange General Hospital in New Jersey.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "candy stripers",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "candy-striper",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "candystriper",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "head": "candy striper"
      },
      "expansion": "candy striper (plural candy stripers)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms suffixed with -er (relational)",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "People",
          "orig": "en:People",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A volunteer worker in a hospital or hospice."
      ],
      "id": "en-candy_striper-en-noun-5I34ta-r",
      "links": [
        [
          "volunteer",
          "volunteer"
        ],
        [
          "hospital",
          "hospital"
        ],
        [
          "hospice",
          "hospice"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US) A volunteer worker in a hospital or hospice."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "candy girl"
        },
        {
          "word": "candy stripe"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "candy striper"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "candy stripe",
        "3": "er<id:relational>"
      },
      "expansion": "candy stripe + -er",
      "name": "suffix"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "First appears in the US c. 1944, from candy stripe + -er, due to the red-and-white striped jumpers worn by hospital volunteers, which resembled stick candy (being candy-striped); originally worn by a group of high-school girls who volunteered as hospital workers at East Orange General Hospital in New Jersey.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "candy stripers",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "candy-striper",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "candystriper",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "head": "candy striper"
      },
      "expansion": "candy striper (plural candy stripers)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "candy girl"
    },
    {
      "word": "candy stripe"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "American English",
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms suffixed with -er (relational)",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "en:People"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A volunteer worker in a hospital or hospice."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "volunteer",
          "volunteer"
        ],
        [
          "hospital",
          "hospital"
        ],
        [
          "hospice",
          "hospice"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US) A volunteer worker in a hospital or hospice."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "candy striper"
}

Download raw JSONL data for candy striper meaning in English (1.4kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-01-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-01-01 using wiktextract (96027d6 and 9905b1f). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.