| / English Dictionary |
TIMBER
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A beam made of wood
Classified under:
Nouns denoting man-made objects
Hypernyms ("timber" is a kind of...):
beam (long thick piece of wood or metal or concrete, etc., used in construction)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "timber"):
coulisse (a timber member grooved to take a sliding panel)
sternpost ((nautical) the principal upright timber at the stern of a vessel)
stringer (a long horizontal timber to connect uprights)
two-by-four (a timber measuring (slightly under) 2 inches by 4 inches in cross section)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A post made of wood
Classified under:
Nouns denoting man-made objects
Hypernyms ("timber" is a kind of...):
post (an upright consisting of a piece of timber or metal fixed firmly in an upright position)
Sense 3
Meaning:
(music) the distinctive property of a complex sound (a voice or noise or musical sound)
Example:
the muffled tones of the broken bell summoned them to meet
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("timber" is a kind of...):
sound property (an attribute of sound)
Domain category:
music (an artistic form of auditory communication incorporating instrumental or vocal tones in a structured and continuous manner)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "timber"):
harmonic (any of a series of musical tones whose frequencies are integral multiples of the frequency of a fundamental)
resonance (the quality imparted to voiced speech sounds by the action of the resonating chambers of the throat and mouth and nasal cavities)
color; coloration; colour; colouration (the timbre of a musical sound)
nasality (a quality of the voice that is produced by nasal resonators)
plangency; resonance; reverberance; ringing; sonority; sonorousness; vibrancy (having the character of a loud deep sound; the quality of being resonant)
shrillness; stridence; stridency (having the timbre of a loud high-pitched sound)
register ((music) the timbre that is characteristic of a certain range and manner of production of the human voice or of different pipe organ stops or of different musical instruments)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Land that is covered with trees and shrubs
Synonyms:
forest; timber; timberland; woodland
Classified under:
Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)
Hypernyms ("timber" is a kind of...):
dry land; earth; ground; land; solid ground; terra firma (the solid part of the earth's surface)
biome (a major biotic community characterized by the dominant forms of plant life and the prevailing climate)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "timber"):
greenwood (woodlands in full leaf)
riparian forest (woodlands along the banks of stream or river)
tree farm (a forest (or part of a forest) where trees are grown for commercial use)
silva; sylva (the forest trees growing in a country or region)
Instance hyponyms:
Wilderness (a wooded region in northeastern Virginia near Spotsylvania where bloody but inconclusive battles were fought in the American Civil War)
Sherwood Forest (an ancient forest in central England; formerly a royal hunting ground; said to be the home of Robin Hood and his merry band)
Black Forest; Schwarzwald (a hilly forest region in southwestern Germany)
Sense 5
Meaning:
The wood of trees cut and prepared for use as building material
Synonyms:
lumber; timber
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("timber" is a kind of...):
building material (material used for constructing buildings)
Meronyms (substance of "timber"):
wood (the hard fibrous lignified substance under the bark of trees)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "timber"):
stock (lumber used in the construction of something)
strip (thin piece of wood or metal)
board; plank (a stout length of sawn timber; made in a wide variety of sizes and used for many purposes)
planking (planks collectively; a quantity of planks)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
Present simple (first person singular and plural, second person singular and plural, third person plural) of the verb timber
Context examples:
It was strange to mark the hush; so that the lapping of the water, the straining of the sail, and the creaking of the timbers grew louder of a sudden upon the ear.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
For years, timber harvesting has been the panda's biggest threat.
(Belly up to the bamboo buffet: Pandas vs. horses, NSF)
She started from my side, and ran along a jagged timber which protruded from the place we stood upon, and overhung the deep water at some height, without the least defence.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
There is increasing interest around the world in using timber as a lighter, more sustainable construction alternative to steel and concrete.
(Revealing the nanostructure of wood could help raise height limits for wooden skyscrapers, University of Cambridge)
But now he was tied with a chain that defied his teeth, and he strove in vain, by lunging, to draw the staple from the timber into which it was driven.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
This approach would also help keep carbon out of the atmosphere by diverting timber away from being burnt as fuel.
(Visualising heat flow in bamboo could help design more energy-efficient and fire-safe buildings, University of Cambridge)
Having travelled about three miles, we came to a long kind of building, made of timber stuck in the ground, and wattled across; the roof was low and covered with straw.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
The stench of bad beef was in his nostrils, while in his ears, to the accompaniment of creaking timbers and groaning bulkheads, echoed the loud mouth-noises of the eaters.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
She felt all the honest pride and complacency which her alliance with the present and future proprietor could fairly warrant, as she viewed the respectable size and style of the building, its suitable, becoming, characteristic situation, low and sheltered—its ample gardens stretching down to meadows washed by a stream, of which the Abbey, with all the old neglect of prospect, had scarcely a sight—and its abundance of timber in rows and avenues, which neither fashion nor extravagance had rooted up.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
At last the violet rim of the German Ocean appeared over the green edge of the Norfolk coast, and the driver pointed with his whip to two old brick and timber gables which projected from a grove of trees.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
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