Wood family

English

Etymology

A pun on wood, the material that may be seen when benches are empty.

Proper noun

the Wood family

1. (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.