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Glite Dictionary
🥄 A cooking spoon 🏅 A loser prize
wooden spoon

wooden spoon

5 1.0
A spoon made of wood used to stir or mix food
  • noun
  • /ˈwʊdən spun/
translation icon : cuchara de madera
  • Add the meat and let it brown, crumbling with a wooden spoon for 4-5 minutes.
  • use a wooden spoon
  • wooden spoon for mixing
  • wooden spoon, stir

And also for some reason they've given us like the proper wooden spoons that you eat ramen with.

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Examples

  • I added two trays of ice and stirred with my wooden spoon.

    Crimes of the Heart (1986)

  • Stir with a wooden spoon and slowly bring to the boil.

  • Add in the flour, and using a wooden spoon, mix together well.

    Blog text (6)

  • Beat the warm icing with a wooden spoon until it thickens, about 2-3 minutes.

    Blog text (29)

  • With a wooden spoon, she was stirring the dark brown liquid bubbling in it.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • Crumble turkey into the pot, stirring with a wooden spoon to break apart as much as possible.

    Blog text (8)

  • Reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon to prevent sticking.

    Blog text (8)

  • Mrs. Fleischer banged on a soup pot with a wooden spoon.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • Inside Pete's office, Nadine, the accounts secretary, was stirring a big pot of tea with a wooden spoon.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • To combine the ingredients thoroughly, use a wooden spoon for mixing.

Synonyms

spoon
vswooden spoon
146 1.0

A small bowl-shaped tool with a handle used to eat or serve food

is the same object but specifically made of wood for stirring and mixing
spurtle
vswooden spoon
  • UK
9.9

A wooden stick for stirring porridge or soup

is similar in stirring use but is a wood bowl-and-handle tool not a stick

How Durable

metalware
1 5.0
spoon
146 1.0
wooden spoon
5 1.0

Surface Forms

wooden spoon singular
wooden spoons plural

Morphology

wooden + spoon

The phrase literally names an object made of wood and a utensil, but its conventionalized use as an informal prize for coming last is an idiomatic, culturally specific meaning not predictable from the parts. A B1 learner who knows 'wooden' and 'spoon' would most likely interpret the literal object and not infer the figurative ‘last-place award’ sense without exposure or cultural context.

Etymology

Wooden spoon comes from the words wooden and spoon and names a spoon made of wood used 'to stir' and 'mix' food in a pan or bowl.