cupcakenoun/ˈkʌpkeɪk/

• 1

  A small cake baked in a usually paper container shaped like a cup, often with icing on top.

  • But when he tasted a vanilla-frosted vanilla cupcake from the Magnolia Bakery in Greenwich Village in 2004, it changed his life. […] Members of Jordan’s royal family stop by the shop in jeans and sweatshirts, ordering boxes of cupcakes while their bodyguards wait outside.
• 2

  slangAn attractive young woman.

  • Whatever else this cupcake might be up to, she was no piker.
• 3

  slangA weak or effeminate man.

• 4

  informalA term of endearment.

  • “Listen, cupcake,” Cash tried to soothe. “Sometimes when grownups get mad, they say things they don't mean. I'm sure your mother—”
• 5

  slanghobbieslifestylesportsAn unskilled player or team, especially one expected to be easily defeated by a stronger opponent.

  • Australia need a win to progress, but they have a cupcake in Italy for their last, so they're not likely to miss out.

cupcakeverb/ˈkʌpkeɪk/

• 1

  slangTo flirt; to talk or act amorously or intimately.

  • I watched Brian as he drove off down the street. I turned and went back inside the studio and found Len at my desk. “I saw you and Brian cupcaking out there.”
  • But I figured Najah was cupcaking with Johan, Chelsea was eating something that didn't match while Greg rubbed her feet, and Kalena wasn't in a space to talk or listen.
• 2

  rareslangTo flirt with; to talk or act amorously or intimately to.

  • “I have thought of nothing but you for many days.” / Leticia actually blushed. “You cupcaking me?”
  • “Quit cupcaking me, sugar.” / She was sure she was imagining the warmth in his deep, crinkly eyes, but her belly did a flip and high-fived her heart, as though she truly had succeeded in making him like her.
• 3

  To mash a cupcake at; to cover with cupcake.

  • After waving and smiling a quick farewell, I turned back on my way out of the lunchroom – and ran smack into Rusty Kuznevoy, flattening his chocolate cupcake against his chest.[…]Rusty saw the smirk, and I appeared to be snickering at the toughest kid in fourth grade seconds after cupcaking him.[…]Maybe he’d forgotten all about being cupcaked?[…]I recalled my vow of supremacy from last year, the one I’d made just before I cupcaked Rusty, and I reasoned that my science project could also bring me some redemption for the events of yesterday.
  • So Colin crouched down, allowing her to smash a slightly used cupcake against his nose.[…]Avery took the aprons from him, carefully folding them so more crumbs wouldn’t fall to the already cupcaked snow.
• 4

  slangTo handle easily and successfully.

  • “Being an independent coach sure, I cupcaked my schedule,” said McGuire.
  • After John Garr popped out, Jeff Ward cupcaked a ball to short for a forceout and Black scored.
• 5

  To cover or be abundant with cake-like decorations such as frills.

  • Maeve joined them in happy admiration of the baby girl, who had just been christened with the name Genesis and was cupcaked for the occasion with endless bits of lace frill.
  • By nine o’clock that night the snow had begun to fall even harder. Brendon stood on the corner of 87ᵗʰ Street and Stony Island Avenue beneath a green canvas awning now cupcaked with a layer of white.
• 6

  rareinformalTo feed cupcakes.

  • So—we offered a cup cake a day for life to anybody who would find us a better word than the word “market.”[…]She wrote to say that the Farmers Market defies description and asks why we don’t just keep on referring to it as the original Farmers Market and send the cup cakes to some home for under cup-caked children.
  • Winnie Ellis “cupcaked” her Decorative Stitchery group and Paul Barnett baked enough of her special bran muffins for all of the Meals on Wheels recipients.
• 7

  informalWith out: to saturate by cupcakes.

  • Ross, a pastry chef who recently moved from California, reels off half a dozen cupcake bakeries in the Santa Monica area she went to all the time, including one called “Le Cupcake” which opened last fall and prompted one food blogger to ask, “Are we cupcaked out? Is there room for yet another cupcake shop in Southern California?”
  • I love baking cupcakes, but I was starting to feel cupcaked-out.
• 8

  informalTo make cupcakes.

  • “I told ’em that you would bake us 30 cupcakes instead.” And so Mrs. Smith cupcaked the other night until 1 a. m.
  • And make cupcakes. I’ve cupcaked three times in the last few days.