sand cookie

noun

Name given to various types of shortbread.

First used late 19th c.

Meanings

nounsand cookie (plural sand cookies)

plural sand cookies

  1. 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 121
    1 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.)

  2. USAny echinoderm of the order Clypeasteroida.

    Synonyms: sand dollar

  3. 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 250
    1 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.

Also see

Origin

  1. Frenchsablé“shortbread”
  2. Englishsand cookie

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

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

sand cookie. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sand%20cookie

MLA

“sand cookie.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sand%20cookie. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

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.