furniture

[fur-ni-cher]

noun

1. the movable articles, as tables, chairs, desks or cabinets, required for use or ornament in a house, office, or the like.

2. fittings, apparatus, or necessary accessories for something.

3. equipment for streets and other public areas, as lighting standards, signs, benches, or litter bins.

4. Also called bearer. Also called dead metal. Printing.,  pieces of wood or metal, less than type high, set in and about pages of type to fill them out and hold the type in place in a chase.

furniture

/ ˈfɜːnɪtʃə /

noun

1. the movable, generally functional, articles that equip a room, house, etc

2. the equipment necessary for a ship, factory, etc

3. printing lengths of wood, plastic, or metal, used in assembling formes to create the blank areas and to surround the type

4. the wooden parts of a rifle

5. obsolete,  the full armour, trappings, etc, for a man and horse

6. the attitudes or characteristics that are typical of a person or thing

   the furniture of the murderer's mind

7. informal,  someone or something that is so long established in an environment as to be accepted as an integral part of it

   he has been here so long that he is part of the furniture

8. See door furniture street furniture

Other Word Forms

• furnitureless adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of furniture¹

1520–30; < French fourniture, derivative of fournir to furnish

Word History and Origins

Origin of furniture¹

C16: from French fourniture , from fournir to equip, _furnish

Example Sentences

The new levies on kitchen and bathroom cabinets, as well as some other furniture, were in response to high levels of imports, which hurt local manufacturers, the president said.

From BBC

"I'm saving for the money that I'll need to do the place up. I'm saving for furniture. I'm saving for bills, and I'm saving for an emergency fund," she says.

From BBC

Big companies pay him to get rid of stuff they no longer need, ranging from office furniture to equipment like cookers.

From BBC

Inside, there’s unnerving minimalist furniture, dramatic saunas and ice baths and an indoor football field with a throwing machine powerful enough to knock out a tooth.

From Los Angeles Times

In “Last Rites,” the house of the beset Smurl family comes instantly to life with its worn furniture, Pyrex casserole pans and stretched cord of its wall phone.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• appliance 
• bed 
• bookcase 
• chair 
• couch 
• desk 
• equipment 
• goods 
• sofa 
• table