wooden spoon | Idiomator

Meaning: Aspoonmade fromwood, commonly used in food preparation.; (idiomatic)An ironic prize for finishing last in a competition.1858, Charles Kent,The Derby Ministry: A Series of Cabinet Pictures, page237:Earnestly bent upon fulfilling the weighty, nay solemn, responsibilities of his office at all hazard, even at the risk of so far neglecting his parliamentary duties as to appear upon the division-list less frequently than any of his colleagues, Sir John Pakington wore thewooden spoonat the whitebait dinner, though with an air of waggery — almost as a decoration.; (Cambridge Universityslang,dated)The lastjunioroptimewho takes a university degree.1843,Thomas Macaulay,Sir James Mackintosh's History of the Revolution:We submit that awooden spoonof our day would not be justified in calling Galileo and Napier blockheads because they never heard of the differential calculus.; (US,universityslang,dated)The lowestappointeeof 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.

Examples:

EN: -One wooden spoon, one bowl...
ES: - Una cuchara de madera, un bol...
EN: Why am I using a wooden spoon please? to stir this saucepan?
ES: ¿Por qué uso la cuchara de madera con esa freidera?
EN: Don't you know that God gave man a wooden spoon?
ES: ¿No sabes que Dios le dio al hombre la cuchara de madera?
EN: Today she came at me with a wooden spoon but I ducked and... the spoon broke on the sink.
ES: Hoy quiso pegarme con la cuchara. Yo me agaché y la cuchara se quebró.
EN: Wanna hand me that wooden spoon back there?
ES: ¿Me pasas la cuchara de madera?
EN: I added two trays of ice and stirred with my wooden spoon.
ES: Le puse dos cubitos de hielo y lo deshice con la cuchara de palo.
EN: Er, a toothbrush, a wooden spoon,
ES: Un cepillo de dientes, una cuchara de palo,
EN: Don't make me get that wooden spoon, Henry.
ES: No me obligues a buscar la cuchara de madera. Sabes que la detestas.
EN: You know you hate that wooden spoon. Do it now, then I know it's done. You don't forget.
ES: Hazlo ahora... así sé que lo hiciste y no te olvidas.
EN: I got a wooden spoon.
ES: Tengo una cuchara de madera.
EN: Wait, there's a long wooden spoon in the back.
ES: Tengo una cuchara larga de madera en el maletero.
EN: She's looking for a long wooden spoon.
ES: Está buscando una cuchara larga de madera.
EN: Piper, you're stranded and you're all alone, and the only thing you have to protect yourself with is a wooden spoon that's broken.
ES: Piper, estás tirada y sola y únicamente tienes una cuchara de madera rota para protegerte.
EN: She started spanking me with a wooden spoon.
ES: Empezó dándome nalgadas con una cuchara de madera.
EN: Ten minutes on a slow heat, stirring with a wooden spoon till it starts to boil.
ES: Diez minutos a fuego lento, moviendo de vez en cuando con una cuchara de palo después de empezar a hervir.

Note: the examples for non latin scripts have a high likelihood of mistakes, we do not own any of this data and it is sourced from Wiktionary, the NLLB database and Opensubtitles. Please help us improve this by contributing correct examples. We will be working to fix this issue over time however it is a bigger issue due to the the difficulties in dealing with non latin scripts and grammatical structures(non-romantic/european languages have lower resources as well ).