Adjacent Words

Wooden definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

WOODEN, a. [from wood.]
1. Made of wood; consisting of wood; as a wooden box; a wooden leg; a wooden horse.
2. Clumsy; awkward.
When a bold man is put out of countenance, he makes a very wooden figure on it.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: made or consisting of (entirely or in part) or employing wood; "a wooden box"; "an ancient cart with wooden wheels"
2: lacking ease or grace; "the actor's performance was wooden"; "a wooden smile"

Merriam Webster's

adjective Date: 1538 1. made or consisting of wood 2. lacking ease or flexibility ; awkwardly stiff <a wooden speech> <a wooden performer> • woodenly adverb • woodenness noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. 1 made of wood. 2 like wood. 3 a stiff, clumsy, or stilted; without animation or flexibility (wooden movements; a wooden performance). b expressionless (a wooden stare). Phrases and idioms: wooden-head colloq. a stupid person. wooden-headed colloq. stupid. wooden-headedness colloq. stupidity. wooden horse = Trojan Horse. wooden spoon a booby prize (orig. a spoon given to the candidate coming last in the Cambridge mathematical tripos). Derivatives: woodenly adv. woodenness n.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Wooden Wood"en, a. 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. (a) (Cambridge University, Eng.) 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. (b) 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.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. Wooden objects are made of wood. ...the shop's bare brick walls and faded wooden floorboards. ADJ: ADJ n 2. If you describe an actor as wooden, you are critical of them because their performance is not at all lively or natural. ADJ [disapproval]

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. 1. Made of wood. 2. Woody, ligneous. 3. Awkward, clumsy, ungainly, stiff, rigid, hard, unpliant, unpliable, unplastic.

Moby Thesaurus

arid, awkward, barren, blah, blank, bloodless, blunt, blunt-witted, buckram, bumbling, cardboard, characterless, clumsy, cold, colorless, dead, deadpan, dim, dim-witted, dismal, dopey, draggy, drearisome, dreary, dry, dryasdust, dull, dull of mind, dull-headed, dull-pated, dull-witted, dusty, effete, elephantine, empty, etiolated, expressionless, fade, fat-witted, fishy, flat, gauche, glassy, gross-headed, halting, ham-handed, heavy, heavy-handed, hebetudinous, ho-hum, hollow, impassive, inane, inept, inexcitable, inexpressive, insipid, jejune, leaden, lifeless, low-spirited, maladroit, muscle-bound, obtuse, pale, pallid, pedestrian, plodding, pointless, poker-faced, poky, ponderous, slow, slow-witted, sluggish, solemn, spiritless, sterile, stiff, stilted, stodgy, stuffy, superficial, tasteless, tedious, thick-brained, thick-headed, thick-pated, thick-witted, thickskulled, unexpressive, unhandy, unhappy, unlively, vacant, vapid, weighty