Wooden spoon

(a.) (Cambridge University, Eng.) The last junior optime who takes a university degree—denoting one who is only fit to stay at home and stir porridge. “We submit that a wooden spoon of our day would not be justified in calling Galileo and Napier blockheads, because they never heard of the differential calculus.” Macaulay. (b.) (Amer. Colleges.) The lowest appointee of the junior year, though often one especially popular in his class, without special reference to scholarship.