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Wood family. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
Wood family, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
Wood family in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Etymology
A pun on wood, the material that may be seen when benches are empty.
Proper noun
the Wood family
- (slang, humorous) Empty seats at a theater, circus, etc., corresponding to tickets that the venue failed to sell.
1958, Reginald Taylor, Circus Triumphant, page 177:In spite of their efforts to avoid it, members of the "Wood Family" were constantly in evidence. In the slang of the circus, the phrase simply meant empty seats.
2010, Ivor Noël Hume, A Passion for the Past: The Odyssey of a Transatlantic Archaeologist:[…] we trucked last week's show sixteen miles to the coastal village of Lynton for a single performance in the village hall, a performance attended largely by the “Wood Family”—theatrical gallows humor for the rows of empty wooden seats.
2012, Angela Carter, Wise Children, page 77:We learned to despise the 'Wood' family, that is, the empty seats. We lived off the Scotch eggs the landladies put out for late supper, after the show.