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
Pestle, Sieve, and Whisk: Useful Words for Cooking Tools
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If You Come Softly
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Moon Over Manifest
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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.
And the NHL’s most fearsome netminder suddenly looked as impenetrable as a colander.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 30, 2025
If you don't have access to eclipse glasses, you can create a simple pinhole camera with just two sheets of cardboard or even use a colander to project the Sun's image safely onto the ground.
From BBC • Mar. 28, 2025
Farther to the east, at one point it seemed as if the Mojave Desert was as hole-pocked as a colander.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 11, 2025
If you don’t have eclipse glasses, you can use an indirect viewing method such as a colander or pinhole projector.
From Salon • Mar. 27, 2024
The horse followed, turning onto a rutted path lumpy with roots, and it was as if they had slipped in under a giant colander.
From "Tuck Everlasting" by Natalie Babbit
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.
