Wooden spoon Meaning, Definition & Usage

Definitions

1. . (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.