cutlery
Americannoun
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cutting instruments collectively, especially knives for cutting food.
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utensils, as knives, forks, and spoons, used at the table for serving and eating food.
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the trade or business of a cutler.
noun
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implements used for eating, such as knives, forks, and spoons
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instruments used for cutting
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the art or business of a cutler
Etymology
Origin of cutlery
1300–50; Middle English cutellerie < Middle French coutelerie; see cutler, -y 3
Explanation
The spoons, forks, and knives in your kitchen drawer? They're collectively referred to as cutlery, the implements you use when you eat food. Dig in! You can use the noun cutlery for every single kitchen tool you use to serve or prepare food, but it's most commonly used for the ones you put beside your plate when you set the table. Other terms for cutlery include flatware and silverware. As you might guess from the cut within the word, cutlery was originally used only for cutting utensils — knives, in other words.
Vocabulary lists containing cutlery
Pestle, Sieve, and Whisk: Useful Words for Cooking Tools
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The Chocolate Touch
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This Week in Words: Current Events Vocabulary for January 7–January 13, 2023
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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.
Instant Brands, whose brands also include Corelle, Snapware, CorningWare, Visions and Chicago Cutlery, said it has received a commitment for $132.5 million in new debtor-in-possession financing from its existing lenders.
From Seattle Times • Jun. 13, 2023
Cutlery, curtains, the belt of his dressing gown: He makes exuberant use of them all.
From New York Times • Nov. 21, 2022
He did not interact with the District Cutlery staff until the end of his visit, when he appeared to ask an employee to ring him up.
From Washington Post • Apr. 5, 2021
Cutlery is not embossed with a palace design and visitors to the palace are usually given napkins with their canapes rather than plates.
From BBC • Oct. 14, 2019
Mine Host demanded something we could dance to, if we would-, & not gouge our Eyes out with the Cutlery.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party" by M.T. Anderson
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.
