caramel

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A smooth chewy candy made with sugar, butter, cream or milk, and flavoring.
2. n. Burnt sugar, used for coloring and sweetening foods.
3. n. A moderate yellow brown.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. Anhydrous or burnt sugar, a product of the action of heat upon sugar. When cane-sugar is heated in an oil or metal bath to between 210° and 220° C., it begins to assume a brown color of continually increasing depth, and when the tumefaction has ceased the vessel contains a black substance to which the name of caramel has been given. It has a high luster, like anthracite, and dissolves readily in water, giving it a fine sepia tint. Its composition is the same as that of cane-sugar in its compound with oxid of lead. It is used for giving a brown color to spirits, soups, gravies, etc.
2. n. A sweet, variously composed and flavored, but generally consisting of chocolate, sugar, and butter, and dark-colored.
3. n. Sometimes spelled caromel.
4. In candy- and cheese-making, to become burned and browned: said of the sugar dissolved in milk or syrups under the influence of heat; caramelize. See caramel, n.

Wiktionary

1. n. A smooth, chewy, sticky confection made by heating sugar and other ingredients until the sugars polymerize and become sticky.
2. n. A (sometimes hardened) piece of this confection.
3. n. A yellow-brown color.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Chem.) Burnt sugar; a brown or black porous substance obtained by heating sugar. It is soluble in water, and is used for coloring spirits, gravies, etc.
2. n. A kind of confectionery, usually a small cube or square of tenacious paste, or candy, of varying composition and flavor.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. firm chewy candy made from caramelized sugar and butter and milk
2. adj. having the color of caramel; of a moderate yellow-brown
3. n. burnt sugar; used to color and flavor food
4. n. a medium to dark tan color