Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Trees or wooded land considered as a source of wood.
  • noun Wood used as a building material; lumber.
  • noun A dressed piece of wood, especially a beam in a structure.
  • noun Nautical A rib in a ship's frame.
  • noun A person considered to have qualities suited for a particular activity.
  • transitive verb To support or frame with timbers.
  • interjection Used by one cutting down a tree to warn those around that the tree is about to fall.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In cricket, the stumps; the wickets: usually in the plural.
  • noun In mining, a local name for a braced frame forming the roof and side-supports of a gallery or drilt.
  • To furnish (a tunnel, drift, gallery, or other excavation) with braced frames of logs or squared timbers which support the roof and resist the caving in or crushing at the sides.
  • To build; make a nest.
  • To furnish with timber. See timbered.
  • To surmount and decorate, as a crest does a coat of arms.
  • noun Wood suitable for building houses or ships, or for use in carpentry, joinery, etc.; trees cut down and squared or capable of being squared and cut into beams, rafters, planks, boards, etc.
  • noun Growing trees, yielding wood suitable for constructive uses; trees generally; woods. See timber-tree.
  • noun In British law, the kind of tree which a tenant for life may not cut; in general, oak, ash, and elm of the age of twenty years and upward, unless so old as not to have a reasonable quantity of useful wood in them, the limit being, according to some authorities, enough to make a good post.
  • noun Stuff; material.
  • noun A single piece of wood, either suitable for use in some construction or already in such use; a beam, either by itself or forming a member of any structure: as, the timbers of a house or of a bridge.
  • noun Nautical, one of the curving pieces of wood branching upward from the keel of a vessel, forming the ribs.
  • noun The wooden part of something, as the beam or handle of a spear.
  • noun The stocks.
  • Constructed of timber; made of wood.
  • noun A certain number or tale of skins, being forty of marten, ermine, sable, and the like, and one hundred and twenty of others.
  • noun In heraldry, originally, the crest; hence, in modern heraldry, the helmet, miter, coronet, etc., when placed over the arms in a complete achievement.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To furnish with timber; -- chiefly used in the past participle.
  • noun (Her.) The crest on a coat of arms.
  • noun (Com.) A certain quantity of fur skins, as of martens, ermines, sables, etc., packed between boards; being in some cases forty skins, in others one hundred and twenty; -- called also timmer.
  • transitive verb obsolete To surmount as a timber does.
  • intransitive verb obsolete To light on a tree.
  • intransitive verb (Falconry) To make a nest.
  • noun That sort of wood which is proper for buildings or for tools, utensils, furniture, carriages, fences, ships, and the like; -- usually said of felled trees, but sometimes of those standing. Cf. lumber, 3.
  • noun The body, stem, or trunk of a tree.
  • noun Fig.: Material for any structure.
  • noun A single piece or squared stick of wood intended for building, or already framed; collectively, the larger pieces or sticks of wood, forming the framework of a house, ship, or other structure, in distinction from the covering or boarding.
  • noun Western U. S. Woods or forest; wooden land.
  • noun (Shipbuilding) A rib, or a curving piece of wood, branching outward from the keel and bending upward in a vertical direction. One timber is composed of several pieces united.
  • noun (Shipbuilding) Same as Room and space. See under Room.
  • noun (Zoöl.) any one of numerous species of beetles the larvæ of which bore in timber.
  • noun (Zoöl.), [Local, U. S.] the American woodcock.
  • noun (Zoöl.) any species of grouse that inhabits woods, as the ruffed grouse and spruce partridge; -- distinguished from prairie grouse.
  • noun (Naut.) a kind of hitch used for temporarily marking fast a rope to a spar. See Illust. under Hitch.
  • noun a kind of instrument upon which soldiers were formerly compelled to ride for punishment.
  • noun a metal tool or pointed instrument for marking timber.
  • noun (Zoöl.) Same as Timber worm, below.
  • noun a tree suitable for timber.
  • noun (Zoöl.) any larval insect which burrows in timber.
  • noun a yard or place where timber is deposited.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun uncountable Trees in a forest regarded as a source of wood.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English, building, trees for building; see dem- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English tymber, from Old English timber, from Proto-Germanic *timran, from Proto-Indo-European *demh₂- (“build, house”) (see Proto-Indo-European *dṓm). Cognates include Old High German zimbar (German Zimmer), Old Norse timbr, Gothic 𐍄𐌹𐌼𐍂𐌾𐌰𐌽 (timrjan, "to build"), and Latin domus.

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Examples

  • He was to take the timber at a valuation, and it is a sufficient proof of his ignorance of these matters, that he really did not know the difference between a hazel bush and an oak tree; for, although he was a very clever and an ingenious man in his way, yet he actually applied to me, to know how they would measure such _small timber_ as that which he pointed out to me, which was nothing more than a _hazel bush!

    Memoirs of Henry Hunt, Esq. — Volume 2 Henry Hunt 1804

  • Rick, back in late July we saw one of your competitors sold some land, basically what they called a timber deed, and I'm curious if you care to comment on the structure.

    unknown title 2009

  • For instance, furniture grade timber is unheard of in the south, because timber cutters strip cut so much to during the gutting that happened after the war.

    Coyote Blog » Blog Archive » Post-War Devastation 2010

  • The 7mm-08 is an outstanding starter rifle and a life long shooter, especially if you are hunting more in timber than the prairie.

    Deer Hunting Rilfe 2010

  • Previously we normally located them in timber during the majority of daylight hours.

    Do you think that the long term ecological damage caused by exterminating predators or holding them well below their natural pop 2009

  • Photo By hunter6 second shed of the year found it on my way home from work were the deer had been jumping the fence to go to the timber from the corn field. eastern iowa .2010

    Field & Stream 2010

  • Starting last year, a certain timber company the club I hunt with leases land from, prohibited the use of dogs to deer hunt.

    Deer Hunting with Dogs 2009

  • The 7mm-08 is an outstanding starter rifle and a life long shooter, especially if you are hunting more in timber than the prairie.

    Deer Hunting Rilfe 2010

  • Starting last year, a certain timber company the club I hunt with leases land from, prohibited the use of dogs to deer hunt.

    Deer Hunting with Dogs 2009

  • You can now buy ETFs that specialize in timber, Canadian energy stocks, water, the Swedish krona and Chinese real estate.

    Is an ETF the right investment for you? Look beyond the hype 2010

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