Dictionary

sand cookie en · NOUN

Etymology

Perhaps a calque of French sablé (“shortbread”) from sable (“sand”), because of the texture of the crumbs; cf. also Norwegian sandkake.

Meanings

1. (US) Name given to various types of shortbread.
   • 1945, Adrian Wilson, letter dated 31 March, 1945, in Joyce Lancaster Wilson (ed.), Two Against the Tide: A Conscientious Objector in World War II: Selected Letters, Austin, TX: W. Thomas Taylor, p. 132, Some of the wives poured and served up civilized cookies such as I haven’t had for months. ([Your] sand cookies are out of this world, therefore excluded.)
   • her breath sugary from fingerfuls of molasses or sand-cookie crumbs 1987, Toni Morrison, Beloved, New York: Knopf, page 121:
2. (US) Any echinoderm of the order Clypeasteroida.
3. (US) A mass of sand shaped to resemble a cookie by a child playing, similar to a mud pie.
   • Make sand cookies at the beach. All you need is a set of plastic cookie cutters and presses. These can provide hours of amusement at the beach for toddlers […] 2000, Barbara Rowley, chapter 6, in Baby Days, New York: Hyperion, page 197:
   • A boy and a girl were playing in a large sandbox near my window. The little girl, who was singing, was very busy making sand cookies. 1959, Frances R. Horwich, chapter 11, in The Magic of Bringing Up Your Child, New York: McGraw-Hill, page 250:

Forms

Synonyms

sand dollar