to make by carpentry.
to construct (a plot, scene, article, or the like) in a mechanical or unoriginal fashion.
John Alden, 1876–1951, U.S. composer.
(Malcolm) Scott, 1925–2013, U.S. astronaut and oceanographer.
(intr) to do the work of a carpenter
(tr) to make or fit together by or as if by carpentry
1275–1325; Middle English < Anglo-French < Late Latin carpentārius wainwright, equivalent to Latin carpent ( um ) two-wheeled carriage (< Celtic; compare Old Irish carpad chariot) + -ārius -ary; see -er 2
A carpenter is a person who makes things out of wood. You could hire a carpenter to build you a dining room table and two long benches. Carpenters specialize in woodworking, making furniture and buildings from wood and repairing various wooden things. If you wanted beautiful handmade wooden cabinets in your kitchen, you'd hire a carpenter. The word has been around since the 14th century, but it's been a common last name for even longer. It comes from the Late Latin carpentarius, "wagon maker," with its root word carpentum, "wagon."
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
His father, Noel Ernest Hord, was a carpenter as well as a pastor.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 2026
“I’ve dropped it off three-story buildings and it just bounces,” said Niall Buryk, a Toronto carpenter.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 6, 2026
Sprague co-hosted “Run My Renovation” for the DIY Network and was a carpenter on “Trading Spaces.”
From Salon ● Feb. 20, 2026
He credits training as a carpenter with "shaping him", and has previously spent his summers working on construction sites.
From BBC ● Feb. 7, 2026
She got a carpenter to put together a number of slim tall stepladders and she placed one of these against each table in the house so that I could climb up whenever I wanted to.
From "The Witches" by Roald Dahl
Swift has two albums in the top 10, which also includes records by Sabrina Carpenter, Noah Kahan, Dua Lipa, Harry Styles, SZA and late US rapper Pop Smoke.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026
Answering a written question from deputy Lee Carpenter, senator Alan McLean said the removal of GST from essential grocery items in shops would mostly benefit the richest islanders because they spent more.
From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026
Carpenter & Zuckerman is taking on a growing role in environmental litigation in the region.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 12, 2026
Speaking of hit collaborations, Madonna recently charted with “Bring Your Love,” a duet with Sabrina Carpenter.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026
They introduced themselves as Ace and the Carpenter.
From "Paper Towns" by John Green
The construction and installation of offshore wind turbines requires the expertise of skilled electrical workers, pipe fitters, welders, pile drivers, iron workers, machinists and carpenters.
From Salon ● May 9, 2026
The result: a 30% drop in employment from a late-2022 peak for actors, carpenters, costumers and the hundreds of other professions that make movies and TV shows, according to Labor Department data.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 30, 2026
You don't need to be a scientist, as vacancies are available for everything from carpenters, to electricians, chefs, and even a hairdresser.
From BBC ● Feb. 22, 2026
Among the labor donors, the powerful carpenters unions have donated at least $4 million.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 24, 2025
And while we wait, the gentlemen, soldiers, carpenters, laborers, and servants all discuss their ideas about the New World.
From "Blood on the River" by Elisa Carbone
Mines, of course, are highly constructed, carpentered environments—exactly the kind of environment that should produce a large illusion, according to the theory.
From Slate ● Aug. 24, 2025
Two farmers down the street asked to get married there last fall; guests ate at tables Sarver carpentered and danced late into the night beneath the barn’s vaulted ceiling and wooden beams.
From Washington Times ● Jun. 25, 2016
It’s open at the bottom, and I saw several people direct puzzled glances at its roughly carpentered interior.
From The New Yorker ● Jun. 15, 2015
The latter are big quasi-octagonal panels that might have been carpentered for some hieratic medieval interior.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 6, 2011
Suddenly the Fair Folk halted at one of the cottages, and from a neatly carpentered pen Taran heard a loud “Hwoinch!”
From "The Book of Three" by Lloyd Alexander
He was a dab hand at carpentering, doctoring, shipbuilding and grape growing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 1, 2022
His upper body is hefty, his hands coarse from years of carpentering.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 19, 2020
One of seven children of a Madison, Wis. policeman, Krug worked his way through the University of Wisconsin by toting ice and baggage, carpentering and working in a filling station.
From Time Magazine Archive
Kennedy said he had kept his hand in at carpentering, but feared no one would hire him; he had a brother and a widowed mother to support.
From Time Magazine Archive
Here, in the evenings, they studied blacksmithing, carpentering, and other necessary arts from books which they had brought out of the farmhouse.
From "Animal Farm: A Fairy Story" by George Orwell
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
