Meaning

7 senses
  1. (uncountable)Trees in a forest regarded as a source of wood.

    collect timber

    cut down timber

    Holz, Nutzholz

    лес на корню́les na kornjú, строево́й лесstrojevój les, древеси́наdrevesína

    деревина́derevyná

    the wood of trees cut and prepared for use as building material

  2. (US, uncountable)Wood that has been pre-cut and is ready for use in construction.

    Holz, Bauholz, Schnittholz

    пиломатериа́лыpilomateriály, лесоматериа́лlesomateriál, деревоматериа́лderevomateriál

    лісоматеріа́лlisomateriál

  3. (countable)A heavy wooden beam, generally a whole log that has been squared off and used to provide heavy support for something such as a roof.

    the timbers of a ship

    Stiel, Balken, Säule

    ба́лкаbálka

  4. (countable, uncountable)Material for any structure.

  5. (countable, informal, uncountable)The wooden stock of a rifle or shotgun.

  6. (countable, slang, uncountable)The stumps.

  7. (archaic, countable, uncountable)A certain quantity of fur skins (as of martens, ermines, sables, etc.) packed between boards; in some cases forty skins, in others one hundred and twenty. Also timmer, timbre.

Examples

28 sentences
  1. Load the timber into the pickup truck.

  2. Some lovely half-timbered houses dotted the landscape.

  3. Seasoned timber is better for construction and joinery.

  4. Large amounts of timber are used in paper making.

    deBei der Papierherstellung werden große Mengen an Holz verwendet. — al_ex_an_der

    Tatoeba contributors · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · B2Open on TatoebaReport a problem
  5. Thirty years ago, timber was the main industry here.

Translations

9 languages
Українська
By meaning 2
trees considered as a source of wood:
wood that has been cut ready for construction:
Русский
By meaning 3
trees considered as a source of wood:
wood that has been cut ready for construction:
beam used to support something such as a roof or a ship:
Deutsch
By meaning 3
trees considered as a source of wood:
wood that has been cut ready for construction:
beam used to support something such as a roof or a ship:

Origin

From Middle English tymber, from Old English timber, from Proto-West Germanic *timr, from

From Middle English tymber, from Old English timber, from Proto-West Germanic *timr, from Proto-Germanic *timrą (“building; timber”), from Proto-Indo-European *dem- (“to build; to arrange”) (see Proto-Indo-European *dṓm (“home, house”)).

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

plural: timbers
Singulartimber
Pluraltimbers

regular

Synonyms

10 synonyms
trees considered as a source of wood:forestA2timberland
wood that has been cut ready for construction:woodA2lumber
beam used to support a roof:beamB2rafterB2
Close in meaning
  • (music) the distinctive property of a complex sound (a voice or noise or musical sound):timbrequalitytone
  • the wood of trees cut and prepared for use as building material:lumber
  • land that is covered with trees and shrubs:forestwoodlandtimberland

Word family

41 related words

See also

neighbours in the dictionary

Dictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.

timber — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto