What is "mortice"

Usage examples of "mortice".

It was home-made, of course, but running my hand curiously over the rough, sun-worn surface of the wood, I found each morticed joint as tight as any boatyard could have made them, the planking copper-fastened and neatly stopped below the paint.

Having adjusted each in its due position, I adzed the upper faces and cut a series of mortices for the studs, which were obtained in the bush--mere thin, straight, dry trees which had succumbed to bush fires.

The wheels shrank and the spokes reeled in their hubs and clattered like loom-shafts and at night they'd drive false spokes into the mortices and tie them down with strips of green hide and they'd drive wedges between the iron of the tires and the suncracked felloes.