Word Meanings - WOODEN - Book Publishers vocabulary database

1. Made or consisting of wood; pertaining to, or resembling, wood; as, a wooden box; a wooden leg; a wooden wedding. 2. Clumsy; awkward; ungainly; stiff; spiritless. When a bold man is out of countenance, he makes a very wooden figure

Additional info about word: WOODEN

1. Made or consisting of wood; pertaining to, or resembling, wood; as, a wooden box; a wooden leg; a wooden wedding. 2. Clumsy; awkward; ungainly; stiff; spiritless. When a bold man is out of countenance, he makes a very wooden figure on it. Collier. His singing was, I confess, a little wooden. G. MacDonald. Wooden spoon. The last junior optime who takes a university degree, -- denoting one who is only fit to stay at home and stir porridge. "We submit that a wooden spoon of our day would not be justified in calling Galileo and Napier blockheads because they never heard of the differential calculus." Macaulay. In some American colleges, the lowest appointee of the junior year; sometimes, one especially popular in his class, without reference to scholarship. Formerly, it was a custom for classmates to present to this person a wooden spoon with formal ceremonies. -- Wooden ware, a general name for buckets, bowls, and other articles of domestic use, made of wood. -- Wooden wedding. See under Wedding.

Related words: (words related to WOODEN)

• STIFFENER
  One who, or that which, stiffens anything, as a piece of stiff cloth in a cravat.
• CONSISTENTLY
  In a consistent manner.
• AWKWARD SQUAD
  A squad of inapt recruits assembled for special drill.
• CONSIST
  1. To stand firm; to be in a fixed or permanent state, as a body composed of parts in union or connection; to hold together; to be; to exist; to subsist; to be supported and maintained. He is before all things, and by him all things consist. Col.
• STIFFENING
  1. Act or process of making stiff. 2. Something used to make anything stiff. Stiffening order , a permission granted by the customs department to take cargo or ballast on board before the old cargo is out, in order to steady the ship.
• CONSISTORIAN
  Pertaining to a Presbyterian consistory; -- a contemptuous term of 17th century controversy. You fall next on the consistorian schismatics; for so you call Presbyterians. Milton.
• COUNTENANCE
  demeanor, composure, F. contenance demeanor, fr. L. continentia continence, LL. also, demeanor, fr. L. continere to hold together, 1. Appearance or expression of the face; look; aspect; mien. So spake the Son, and into terror changed
• STIFF
  Bearing a press of canvas without careening much; as, a stiff vessel; -- opposed to crank. Totten. 8. Very large, strong, or costly; powerful; as, a stiff charge; a stiff price. Stiff neck, a condition of the neck such that the head can not be
• WOODENLY
  Clumsily; stupidly; blockishly. R. North.
• CONSISTENCE; CONSISTENCY
  1. The condition of standing or adhering together, or being fixed in union, as the parts of a body; existence; firmness; coherence; solidity. Water, being divided, maketh many circles, till it restore itself to the natural consistence. Bacon. We
• STIFFTAIL
  The ruddy duck.
• CONSISTORY
  The spiritual court of a diocesan bishop held before his chancellor or commissioner in his cathedral church or elsewhere. Hook. (more info) consistorium a place of assembly, the place where the emperor's council met, fr. consistere: cf.
• WOODEN
  1. Made or consisting of wood; pertaining to, or resembling, wood; as, a wooden box; a wooden leg; a wooden wedding. 2. Clumsy; awkward; ungainly; stiff; spiritless. When a bold man is out of countenance, he makes a very wooden figure
• WOODENNESS
  Quality of being wooden; clumsiness; stupidity; blockishness. We set our faces against the woodenness which then characterized German philology. Sweet.
• STIFFISH
  Somewhat stiff.
• STIFFNESS
  The quality or state of being stiff; as, the stiffness of cloth or of paste; stiffness of manner; stiffness of character. The vices of old age have the stiffness of it too. South.
• RESEMBLINGLY
  So as to resemble; with resemblance or likeness.
• MAKESHIFT
  That with which one makes shift; a temporary expedient. James Mill. I am not a model clergyman, only a decent makeshift. G. Eliot.
• PERTAIN
  stretch out, reach, pertain; per + tenere to hold, keep. See Per-, 1. To belong; to have connection with, or dependence on, something, as an appurtenance, attribute, etc.; to appertain; as, saltness pertains to the ocean; flowers pertain to plant
• RESEMBLANT
  Having or exhibiting resemblance; resembling. Gower.
• RESTIFF
  Restive.
• RESTIFFNESS
  Restiveness.
• CONFIGURE
  To arrange or dispose in a certain form, figure, or shape. Bentley.
• WIDMANSTATTEN FIGURES; WIDMANSTAETTEN FIGURES
  Certain figures appearing on etched meteoric iron; -- so called after A. B. Widmanstätten, of Vienna, who first described them in 1808. See the Note and Illust. under Meteorite.
• INCONSISTENTLY
  In an inconsistent manner.
• INCONSISTENCY
  1. The quality or state of being inconsistent; discordance in respect to sentiment or action; such contrariety between two things that both can not exist or be true together; disagreement; incompatibility. There is a perfect inconsistency between