WOODEN

Pronunciation (US): (GB):

I. (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Lacking ease or grace

Example:

a wooden smile

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

awkward (lacking grace or skill in manner or movement or performance)

Derivation:

woodenness (the quality of being wooden and awkward)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Made or consisting of (entirely or in part) or employing wood

Example:

an ancient cart with wooden wheels

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

woody (made of or containing or resembling wood)

Credits

Context examples:

Then they brought him a wooden bowl for a few half-pence, out of which he had to eat.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

But the raft was nearly done, and after the Tin Woodman had cut a few more logs and fastened them together with wooden pins, they were ready to start.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

He knew it was impossible that there could be a country beyond the sea, or that a parcel of brutes could move a wooden vessel whither they pleased upon water.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

"Is it meant to use as you use the string of good-smelling wooden beads hanging over your glass?" asked Amy.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The man-servant, Austin, like a wooden image, closed the door behind us.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Not only the hand, but the hard wooden paddle was used upon him; and he was bruised and sore in all his small body when he was again flung down in the canoe.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

This effect was not seen when a wooden toothpick was inserted instead of the electrodes, or when a non-acupoint area was stimulated.

(Electroacupuncture Reduces Sepsis in Mice, NIH)

These, in turn, were crowded out by Japanese women, doll-like, stepping mincingly on wooden clogs; by Eurasians, delicate featured, stamped with degeneracy; by full-bodied South-Sea-Island women, flower-crowned and brown-skinned.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

In April, archaeologists unearthed several mummies, 10 colourful wooden sarcophagi and more than 1,000 funerary statues near the city of Luxor.

(Egypt Announces Discovery of 3,500-Year-Old Luxor Tomb, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

I thought when the coach stopped here there would be some one to meet me; I looked anxiously round as I descended the wooden steps the boots placed for my convenience, expecting to hear my name pronounced, and to see some description of carriage waiting to convey me to Thornfield.