What is "lumber"

Lumber \Lum"ber\, n. [Prob. fr. Lombard, the Lombards being the money lenders and pawnbrokers of the Middle Ages. A lumber room was, according to Trench, originally a Lombard room, or room where the Lombard pawnbroker stored his pledges. See Lombard.]

1. A pawnbroker's shop, or room for storing articles put in pawn; hence, a pledge, or pawn. [Obs.]

   They put all the little plate they had in the lumber, which is pawning it, till the ships came.
   --Lady Murray.

2. Old or refuse household stuff; things cumbrous, or bulky and useless, or of small value.

3. Timber sawed or split into the form of beams, joists, boards, planks, staves, hoops, etc.; esp., that which is smaller than heavy timber. [U.S.]

   Lumber kiln, a room in which timber or lumber is dried by artificial heat. [U.S.]

   Lumber room, a room in which unused furniture or other lumber is kept. [U.S.]

   Lumber wagon, a heavy rough wagon, without springs, used for general farmwork, etc.

   dimensional lumber, lumber, usually of pine, which is sold as beams or planks having a specified nominal cross-section, usually in inches, such a two-by-four, two-by-six, four-by-four, etc.

Lumber \Lum"ber\, v. i.

1. To move heavily, as if burdened.

2. [Cf. dial. Sw. lomra to resound.] To make a sound as if moving heavily or clumsily; to rumble.
   --Cowper.

3. To cut logs in the forest, or prepare timber for market.

Lumber \Lum"ber\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Lumbered; p. pr. & vb. n. Lumbering.]

1. To heap together in disorder. `` Stuff lumbered together.''
   --Rymer.

2. To fill or encumber with lumber; as, to lumber up a room.

"timber sawn into rough planks," 1660s, American English (Massachusetts), earlier "disused bit of furniture; heavy, useless objects" (1550s), probably from lumber (v.), perhaps influenced by Lombard, from the Italian immigrants famous as pawnbrokers and money-lenders in England (see Lombard). Lumbar, Lumbard were old alternative forms of Lombard in English. The evolution of sense then would be because a lumber-house ("pawn shop") naturally accumulates odds and ends of furniture.\n\nLive Lumber, soldiers or passengers on board a ship are so called by the sailors. [Grose, "Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue," 1785]\n

\n\n
\nLUMBER HOUSE. A house appropriated by thieves for the reception of their stolen property.

["Dictionary of Buckish Slang, University Wit, and Pickpocket Eloquence," London, 1811]

"to move clumsily," c.1300, lomere, probably from a Scandinavian source (compare dialectal Swedish loma "move slowly, walk heavily," Old Norse lami "lame"), ultimately cognate with lame (adj.). Related: Lumbered; lumbering.

n. 1 (context uncountable English) wood intended as a building material. 2 useless things that are stored away 3 A pawnbroker's shop, or room for storing articles put in pawn; hence, a pledge, or pawn. vb. 1 (context intransitive English) to move clumsily 2 (context transitive English) to load down with things, to fill, to encumber 3 To heap together in disorder. 4 To fill or encumber with lumber.

1. v. move heavily or clumsily; "The heavy man lumbered across the room" [syn: pound]

2. cut lumber, as in woods and forests [syn: log]

1. n. the wood of trees cut and prepared for use as building material [syn: timber]

2. an implement used in baseball by the batter [syn: baseball bat]

Lumber is processed wood.

Lumber may also refer to:

• Lumber, Arkansas, an unincorporated community in the United States
• Lumber, West Virginia, an unincorporated community in the United States
• Lumber (Kristiansand), a neighbourhood of Kristiansand, Norway
• Lumber River, in North Carolina, United States
• Lumber Township, Cameron County, Pennsylvania, United States

Lumber is a neighbourhood and an industrial area in Kristiansand, Norway. Lumber is north for Skyllingsheia, south for Trekanten and east for Kjerrheia.

Lumber (American English; timber in Australian English, British English, Hiberno-English, and New Zealand English) is wood that has been processed into beams and planks, a stage in the process of wood production.

Lumber may be supplied either rough- sawn, or surfaced on one or more of its faces. Besides pulpwood, rough lumber is the raw material for furniture-making and other items requiring additional cutting and shaping. It is available in many species, usually hardwoods; but it is also readily available in softwoods, such as white pine and red pine, because of their low cost. Finished lumber is supplied in standard sizes, mostly for the construction industry—primarily softwood, from coniferous species, including pine, fir and spruce (collectively spruce-pine-fir), cedar, and hemlock, but also some hardwood, for high-grade flooring.

Lumber is mainly used for structural purposes but has many other uses as well. It is classified more commonly as a softwood than as a hardwood, because 80% of lumber comes from softwood.