noun
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a board functioning as the base of anything
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Also called: skirting board. a skirting made of wood
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of baseboard
Explanation
A baseboard is a piece of wood molding that runs along the bottom of a wall. Where the bottom of a baseboard ends, the floor begins. A baseboard is a decorative architectural element you'll see in most homes, usually a wide board that's painted to match the trim color of the room. A baseboard is useful for hiding any unevenness in the joint where the wall meets the floor. In Britain, this is called skirting. The word baseboard, from the mid-1800s, combines base, "bottom," and board, or "plank."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Without spacers, you’ll end up tapping the entire row tight to the wall or baseboard.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 4, 2024
This heat source can reduce your electricity use for heating by approximately 50% compared with furnaces, baseboard heaters and other types of electric resistance heating, the department said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 20, 2023
On Tuesday, when a child began using the baseboard of the sculpture as a trampoline, Nurse said it did not bother him: He was relieved, he said, at the sculpture’s durability.
From New York Times ● Aug. 25, 2022
To confirm a stud location, drill a tiny hole into plaster just above the baseboard, where it won’t be very noticeable.
From Washington Post ● May 2, 2022
Sanjeev turned back to the baseboard, to replace a Post-it scrap that had fallen to the floor.
From "Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri
In the co-ed house, residents share kitchen duties, rotating bathroom assignments, and a deep-cleaning every six weeks: baseboards, rugs, stairs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 11, 2026
Often, the instinct is to just begin: grab a garbage bag, empty the freezer, start wiping baseboards, briefly consider alphabetizing your spices.
From Salon ● Mar. 19, 2026
As she stuffed more linens around the baseboards, water flowed from beneath her kitchen cabinets and through her bathroom.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2024
They particularly like to hunker down anywhere near where people sleep, such as in mattresses, furniture and baseboards.
From Scientific American ● Oct. 13, 2023
Bernabe was sad, sitting there on the porch tapping his heels lightly against the baseboards.
From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
