don't take any wooden nickels

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

Be cautious and don't accept something that seems valuable but is actually worthless

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Cẩn thận và đừng chấp nhận những thứ có vẻ quý giá nhưng vô giá trị

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: a wooden coin
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English
Sources & notes

Listed on Wikipedia “List of proverbial phrases” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “don't take any wooden nickels” mean?

Be cautious and don't accept something that seems valuable but is actually worthless Literally: a wooden coin

Is “don't take any wooden nickels” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.