board
UK /bɔːd/ · US /bɔɹd/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms boards boarding boarded boord bord
- noun A relatively long, wide and thin piece of any material, usually wood or similar, often for use in construction or furniture-making.
- noun A device (e.g., switchboard) containing electrical switches and other controls and designed to control lights, sound, telephone connections, etc.
- noun A flat surface with markings for playing a board game. “Each player starts the game with four counters on the board.”
- noun A committee that manages the business of an organization, e.g., a board of directors. “We have to wait to hear back from the board.”
- noun (uncountable) Regular meals in a place of lodging; the price paid for them. “board and lodging”
- noun (nautical) The side of a ship.
- noun (nautical) The distance a sailing vessel runs between tacks when working to windward.
- noun (ice hockey, often in the plural) The wall that surrounds an ice hockey rink.
- verb (transitive) To step or climb onto or otherwise enter a ship, aircraft, train or other conveyance. “It is time to board the aircraft.”
- verb (transitive) To provide someone with meals and lodging, usually in exchange for money. “to board one’s horse at a livery stable”
- verb (transitive) To receive meals and lodging in exchange for money.
- verb (transitive, nautical) To (at least attempt to) capture an enemy ship by going alongside and grappling her, then invading her with a boarding party.
- verb (intransitive) To obtain meals, or meals and lodgings, statedly for compensation
- verb (transitive, now rare) To approach (someone); to make advances to, accost.
- verb To cover with boards or boarding. “to board a house”
- verb To hit (someone) with a wooden board.
- noun (basketball, informal) A rebound.
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
plank table display panel display board dining table control panel instrument panel control board panel circuit board circuit card card plug-in add-in gameboard get on room
Antonyms
Etymology
From Middle English boord, boorde, bord, bourd, burd, from Old English bord, from Proto-West Germanic *bord, from Proto-Germanic *burdą (“board, plank; edge; table”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰers- (“tip, top”) + *-dʰeti or *bʰerH- (“to pierce; to strike”) + *-dʰeti. The senses "food" and "council" are by metonymy from the sense "table".
Cognate with Scots buird (“board; table”), Yola borde (“table”), West Frisian boerd (“board”), Dutch bord (“dish, plate; board, plank; sign”), boord (“border, boundary; bank, shore”), German Bord (“shelf”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish bord (“plank; table”), Elfdalian buord (“table”), Faroese and Icelandic borð (“board, plank; table”), Gothic *𐌱𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌳 (*baurd, “board, plank”) (whence 𐍆𐍉𐍄𐌿𐌱𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌳 (fōtubaurd, “footstool”).
From backboard.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A piece of timber sawed thin, and of considerable length and breadth as compared with the thickness, --used for building, etc.
- noun A table to put food upon.
- verb To cover with boards or boarding; as, to board a house. "The boarded hovel." Cowper.
- verb To go on board of, or enter, as a ship, whether in a hostile or a friendly way. You board an enemy to capture her, and a stranger to receive news or make a communication. Totten.
Etymology [OE. bord, AS. bord board, shipboard; akin to bred plank, Icel. bor board, side of a ship, Goth. f footstool, D. bord board, G. brett, bort. See def. 8. sq. root92.]
Etymology [Cf. Board to accost, and see Board, n.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “board”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details