Meanings
plural sand cookies
- USName given to various types of shortbread.First known use late 19th c.
her breath sugary from fingerfuls of molasses or sand-cookie crumbs
1987, Toni Morrison, Beloved, New York: Knopf, page 1211 more example
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.)
- USA mass of sand shaped to resemble a cookie by a child playing, similar to a mud pie.
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 2501 more example
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
Synonyms & antonyms
nounAny echinoderm of the order Clypeasteroida.
Origin
- Frenchsablé“shortbread”
- Englishsand cookie
Perhaps a calque of French sablé (“shortbread”) from sable (“sand”), because of the texture of the crumbs; cf. also Norwegian sandkake.
More words from French
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
sand cookie. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sand%20cookie
“sand cookie.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sand%20cookie. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “sand cookie,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sand%20cookie.
Source: sand cookie on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.