sand cookie

Perhaps a calque of French sablé (“shortbread”) from sable (“sand”), because of the texture of the crumbs; cf. also Norwegian sandkake.

sand cookie (plural sand cookies)

1. (US) Name given to various types of shortbread.
   • 1945, Adrian Wilson, letter dated 31 March, 1945, in Joyce Lancaster Wilson (ed.), Two Against the Tide: A Conscientious Objector in World War II: Selected Letters, Austin, TX: W. Thomas Taylor, p. 132,

     Some of the wives poured and served up civilized cookies such as I haven’t had for months. ( sand cookies are out of this world, therefore excluded.)

   • 1987, Toni Morrison, Beloved‎, New York: Knopf, page 121:

     her breath sugary from fingerfuls of molasses or sand-cookie crumbs

2. (US) Any echinoderm of the order Clypeasteroida.

   Synonym: sand dollar

3. (US) A mass of sand shaped to resemble a cookie by a child playing, similar to a mud pie.
   • 1959, Frances R. Horwich, chapter 11, in The Magic of Bringing Up Your Child‎, New York: McGraw-Hill, page 250:

     A boy and a girl were playing in a large sandbox near my window. The little girl, who was singing, was very busy making sand cookies.

   • 2000, Barbara Rowley, chapter 6, in Baby Days‎, New York: Hyperion, page 197:

     Make sand cookies at the beach. All you need is a set of plastic cookie cutters and presses. These can provide hours of amusement at the beach for toddlers