cookie-cutter design
- noun
- Informal
:
diseño estandarizado
Examples
-
The whole point of his article is custom blogs, not cookie-cutter designs.
Blog text (27) -
It would be great to see CityVille 2 offer players different starting sections of land to eliminate the cookie-cutter design that each town in CityVille ultimately has.
Blog text (18) -
Many modern suburbs are criticized for their cookie-cutter design, featuring identical houses that lack character.
-
The architect aimed to create a unique community instead of following the cookie-cutter design typical of many developments.
-
Visitors often complain that the new shopping mall has a cookie-cutter design that is just like every other mall.
Antonyms
How Unoriginal
- Informal
81
4.8
Surface Forms
Morphology
cookie-cutter + design
The phrase uses a literal image (a cookie cutter makes identical shapes) so the idea of a design that is uniform or stereotyped is inferable from the constituents. However, this is a metaphorical adjectival extension and relies on recognizing 'cookie-cutter' as a single metaphorical unit, so the meaning is not completely predictable for all B1 learners without prior exposure.
Etymology
Cookie-cutter design comes from a simple baking tool: a cookie cutter makes many cookies in the exact same shape, so you imagine lots of identical copies. That's why the phrase is used for a design that is 'all the same' or 'lacking originality'.