DCHP-1 Online

lumber ((n.))

• 1 † n. rough-sawn or finished planks, boards, etc.

  • 1773  (1948)  Lumber sold at £4, and fish at 16 shilling.
  • 1889  They pulled it out and about 9 hundredweight of lumber with it.
  • 1965  The formation of a company that will manufacture pre-fabricated homes in the United Kingdom with Canadian lumber has been announced.

• 2a n. logs, square timber, etc.

  • 1811  (1959)  The large returns heretofore made in lumber have occasioned an immense Quantity of goods to be poured into this Country. . . .
  • 1836  (1923)  In the summer it is a frequented harbor, and carries on a considerable trade in lumber, for so they characteristically call timber in this country.
  • 1964  By 1913 about 125 million feet of lumber were floating down the St. John River.

• 2b n. Obs. in the lumber, engaged in lumbering (def. 2).

  See also: lumbering (def. 2)  

  • 1896  The Shiners were raftsmen, chiefly Irish, employed in the lumber, rough and ready for a conflict when mellowed with poteen.

• 3 n. Obs. baggage; gear; belongings.

  • 1804  (1890)  The man carries his canoe, his gun and his medecine bag. The women and children must carry all the rest of their lumber.
  • 1820  (1963)  These [Indians] had only two canoes which contained most of their lumber.

• 4a n. Hockey, Slang a hockey stick.

  • 1963  . . . when he used to keep the lumber low they used to run right over the top of him.

• 4b n. Hockey, Slang lay on the lumber, check heavily with a hockey stick, legally or illegally.

  • 1966  Lumley would lay the lumber on his own players, when they came into the goal crease.
  • 1966  . . . they do not hesitate, as hockey men put it, to lay on the lumber.