colander
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of colander
1400–50; late Middle English colyndore, perhaps (with nasalization) < Old Provençal colador < Medieval Latin cōlātōrium, equivalent to Latin cōlā(re) “to strain” (verbal derivative of cōlum strainer) + -tōrium -tory 2
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Explanation
Most cooks would agree that a colander is an essential piece of equipment for even the most basic kitchen. It's a bowl, usually made of plastic or metal, with holes in it to allow liquid to drain away from the food. Colanders are used for draining anything — for instance, if you're washing fruit, a colander would make the job quick and easy. If you're cooking pasta, you toss the pasta into a pot of boiling water, then when it's cooked, you pour the contents of the pot through a colander, and what's left behind in the colander, drained and ready to eat, is the pasta.
Vocabulary lists containing colander
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
IN 1996, David Colander of Middlebury College, in Vermont, expressed his dissatisfaction with decades of economics by invoking a lofty analogy.
From Economist • Apr. 15, 2010
Mr Colander thinks the imperative to publish frequently forces young economists to tackle bite-sized problems, rather than asking big questions with distant, uncertain answers.
From Economist • Apr. 15, 2010
"Economics research has become more a game of chess than a search for understanding reality," says economist David Colander of Middlebury College in Vermont.
From Time Magazine Archive
"What epitomized the 1980s was, Spend now, pay later," says David Colander, economics professor at Middlebury College.
From Time Magazine Archive
Colander, Cullender, kul′end-ėr, n. a vessel having small holes in the bottom, used as a strainer in cookery.—ns.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 1 of 4: A-D) by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
