wooder

1. 1
   nounhumorousuncountablepronunciation spelling

   Pronunciation spelling of water, reflecting how the word sounds in Philadelphia English and southern New Jersey speech.

   He grabbed a bottle of wooder before heading out into the heat.

   Down the shore, the wooder felt freezing even in July.

   Note

   Spelling out an accent is a form of teasing. The respelling imitates the distinctive vowel of Philadelphia and South Jersey speech and pokes gentle fun at someone who says it that way. Grammatically it behaves like water itself and is usually uncountable: soapy wooder, a bottle of wooder. Keep it for affectionate, in-group joking. Aimed at someone else's speech, it can come across as mockery.

2. 2
   nounrarecountable

   A person who cuts or gathers wood.

   The settlement relied on a single wooder to keep every hearth supplied through winter.

   A wooder's hands were rough from years of splitting timber.

   Similarwoodcutter, woodsman

   Note

   The word is built the plain way, wood plus -er, naming a person by the material they work with. It is uncommon. The same spelling belongs to two unrelated words: the comparative of the old 'mad' adjective and a joking respelling of water. Context usually settles which one is meant, since only this one names a person and takes a plural, wooders.

3. 3
   adjectiveobsolete

   Comparative form of wood (obsolete: madder, more furious).

   Note

   Here the wood being compared is the old adjective meaning "mad," not the timber noun, so she seemed wooder than ever means she seemed madder than ever. That adjective is obsolete, so the comparative is a rare survival. It belongs in deliberately old-fashioned or playful writing. Do not read it as "more wooden": stiffness and woodenness belong to a different word.

Showing meanings only. Show all 3