English edit

Alternative forms edit

Etymology edit

PIE word
*dwóh₁

From wood +‎ -en. Dates from 1530s, gradually replaced treen (made from a tree), from Middle English treen, from Old English triewen.

Pronunciation edit

  • IPA(key): /ˈwʊdən/
  • (file)
  • Rhymes: -ʊdən

Adjective edit

wooden (comparative more wooden, superlative most wooden)

  1. Made of wood.
    a wooden boat
    On a recent windy day, hundreds of visitors climbed wooden stairs to take pictures in front of the glacier.
    (file)
    In such a case, you can make a very good case for wooden cases.
    • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
      There were many wooden chairs for the bulk of his visitors, and two wicker armchairs with red cloth cushions for superior people. From the packing-cases had emerged some Indian clubs, [], and all these articles [] made a scattered and untidy decoration that Mrs. Clough assiduously dusted and greatly cherished.
    • 2012 October 8, Daniel W. Patterson, The True Image: Gravestone Art and the Culture of Scotch Irish Settlers in the Pennsylvania and Carolina Backcountry[1], UNC Press Books, →ISBN, page 141:
      The second and third quarters of the shield are indecipherable on the stone but clearer in two other representations of the arms, a painted wooden funeral hatchment for Mary Davie []
  2. (figuratively) As if made of wood; moving awkwardly, or speaking with dull lack of emotion.
    wooden acting

Derived terms edit

Translations edit

Anagrams edit

Yola edit

Adjective edit

wooden

  1. wooden
    • 1867, “THE WEDDEEN O BALLYMORE”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 4, page 96:
      An neeat wooden trenshoorès var whiter than snow.
      And neat wooden trenchers far whiter than snow.

References edit

  • Jacob Poole (1867), William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, page 96