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
"It's a very money-driven society for young adults. When they see a carpenter doing what they like and making a lot of money fast, they see that as aspirational."
From BBC ● Jun. 7, 2026
His father was a carpenter helping build minesweepers at Terminal Island for the Navy.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 15, 2026
A friend recommended a carpenter, who helped with the termites and trickier renovations.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 29, 2026
Alfred was the son of Ned, an enslaved carpenter, and Betty, a cook and maid.
From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis
Shows across the four-day period attracted star-studded attendees, including Bad Bunny, Hudson Williams, Sabrina Carpenter and Cardi B.
From BBC ● Jul. 9, 2026
Speaking of hit collaborations, Madonna recently charted with “Bring Your Love,” a duet with Sabrina Carpenter.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026
Instead, that honour went to the Sabrina Carpenter duet, Bring Your Love, external.
From BBC ● Jul. 2, 2026
If Carpenter protected the less revealing technology, the majority reasons, it necessarily protects the more revealing one.
From Slate ● Jun. 29, 2026
I wondered what the noise was all about, and then I saw Mrs. Carpenter walking sternly up the aisle.
From "The Chosen" by Chaim Potok
AI has also made its way into the software used by woodworkers and carpenters.
From BBC ● May 11, 2026
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
Among the labor donors, the powerful carpenters unions have donated at least $4 million.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 24, 2025
He was still red in the face when he got up to speak, and you could tell he was looking out at the audience for the carpenters and plasterers.
From "The Wednesday Wars" by Gary D. Schmidt
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
Rough stairs carpentered out of two by tens leading down into the darkness.
From "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy
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
Henry D. Moyle. an oil company millionaire who is counselor to Church President David McKay, has been over to the chapel project twice, promises to do some carpentering later.
From Time Magazine Archive
Commoners now work four hours a day five days a week, scrubbing, carpentering, washing dishes, farming.
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.
