The Collaborative International Dictionary
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.]
-
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. Old or refuse household stuff; things cumbrous, or bulky and useless, or of small value.
-
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.