arm candy

American  

Slang.

1. a very attractive person who accompanies someone on a date, as at a public event, but is not romantically involved with that person.

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Etymology

Origin of arm candy

1990–95

Example Sentences

If an equally attractive woman had worn a shirt that read, "It's not easy being my husband's arm candy," it would have come across as bragging, no?

From Salon • Mar. 30, 2023

But if many of Britney’s past flames suggested lapses in her self-esteem, Asghari—chiseled, sensibly bearded, impossibly handsome—is the arm candy of a woman more self-possessed than ever.

From Slate • Sep. 24, 2018

Hunter was the aspirational dream boat for swarms of Baby Boomers and the perfect arm candy for Natalie Wood and Debbie Reynolds, all while hiding his homosexuality.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 9, 2018

They have been treated like fakes and posers and interlopers and arm candy.

From The Verge • Dec. 21, 2017

It is a superior thriller, tense and twisty, and Cranston is predictably excellent, but Kruger is sharp and spirited, more than holding her own in a role that could easily have just been arm candy.

From The Guardian • Sep. 11, 2016