cookie-cutter

comparative more cookie-cutter · superlative most cookie-cutter

1. derogatoryfigurativelyoftenHaving a similar appearance or seeming identical; created by some standard or common means, often with the implication that the result is common, boring, or not applicable to all needs.

   I don't think a cookie-cutter solution will work in all cases.

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   The subdivision was nothing but row after row of cookie-cutter houses.

   Nothing that the uniformity-haters can say is beyond the mark; there is an appalling degree of sameness, of cookie-cutter character and outlook, stamped out with neatness, regularity, and despatch.

   1927, Alfred Emanuel Smith, New Outlook, volume 145

   Our attempt to apply a cookie-cutter to it has landed us in our present morass, and we are floundering aimlessly in this morass because we refuse to admit the obvious fact that our cookie-cutter point of view is all awry

   1933, The Universalist Leader, volume 36

   Whether we call it a culture or a subculture, it is always important to avoid the cookie-cutter view of culture, with regard to the individual and to the culture or subculture involved. With regard to the individual, the cookie-cutter view assumes that all individuals in a culture turn out exactly alike, as if they were so many cookies.

   1969, Bureau Publication

   All clergy need to know the basics of Bible, theology, Christian education, and church history. Their training is therefore more cookie-cutter than individualized.

   1997, Herb Miller, Leadership is the Key: Unlocking Your Effectiveness in Ministry, page 39

   Synonyms: cookie-cuttered, cookie-cutterish

plural cookie-cutters

1. alternativeattributiveAlternative form of cookie cutter.

   For platters of good-looking holiday tea sandwiches, look in your cookie-cutter drawer.

   2002, Mary Engelbreit, Christmas with Mary Engelbreit: Here Comes Santa Claus, →ISBN, page 96

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   Let Us Send You a Trial Package Ten cents (stamps or coin) will bring you a One-Cake package, enough for a nice “company cake," and we will include a 10c Dromedary Cookie-Cutter and a Cook Book of Choice Cocoanut Recipes. The Hills Brothers Co. Dept. B, 375 Washington Street New York

   1916, ad in The Ladies' Home Journal, volume 33, page 87

   Cookie cutters and cake-decorating tools are boxed separately in plastic containers (with lids) so I can stack them up. If you have a large cookie-cutter collection, separate them by holiday or season and package in separate smaller boxes and don't forget to label them accordingly.

   1986, Deniece Schofield, Escape from the Kitchen, →ISBN

   In the passive condition the hand was held palm upwards and the cookie-cutters were pressed on to the sensitive skin of the palm. In the active condition it was the finger tips which were mainly in contact with the cookie-cutter.

   2013, Rom Harre, Great Scientific Experiments: Twenty Experiments that Changed our View of the World, Courier Corporation, →ISBN

present singular third person cookie-cutters · participle present cookie-cuttering · participle past cookie-cuttered · past cookie-cuttered

1. idiomatictransitiveuncommonTo produce, design, or approach something in a formulaic, mass-produced or unoriginal manner, often ensuring all the outputs are identical.

   Insofar as we got cookie-cuttered by social systems, the control paradigm designed the shapes.

   1996, Denise Breton, Christopher Largent, The Paradigm Conspiracy, How Our Systems of Government, Church, School, and Culture Violate Our Human Potential, page 141

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   Ever since USA Today arrived with its bar graphs, its color-coded weather maps (red means hot, boys and girls!), its stick-figure journalism, its pages cookie-cuttered by brights and factoids and its expert trivializing of everything from wars to nutrition, the craft of newspapering meant nothing more than making sure the percentages took up an accurate slice of the pie chart.

   1991, Paul Daugherty, “The Write Stuff, What A Shame Nobody Wants To Read It Anymore”, in Cincinnati Magazine, volume 24, number 11, page 58

   in arts funding, and possibly cookie-cuttering the program in other Blue Fish locations across the country.

   1995, Alan Reder, 75 Best Business Practices for Socially Responsible Companies, page 202

   I agree but they did not do this out of the goodness of their hearts. They did to make money. They cookie cuttered the bikes and quality be dammed.

   1995 August 18, David DeCoster, “"HOG"”, in rec.motorcycles.harley (Usenet)

   It ain't cheap. It cost me several hundred dollars more than if I had just cookie cuttered the plywood. Admittedly, my layout is a somewhat larger layout than the 4x8's WS uses as an example. Make sure and do a rough materials estimate before you start, and are willing to pay the convenience cost.

   1999 August 27, Dale Wiese, “Woodlands New Layout Method”, in rec.models.railroad (Usenet)

   cookie-cuttered the dash, and forehead prints from who knows how many people buttered the interior of the windshield.

   2001, Zyzzyva, Incorporated (publisher), Zyzzyva, page 47