board

[bawrd, bohrd]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR board ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a piece of wood sawed thin, and of considerable length and breadth compared with the thickness.

a flat slab of wood or other material for some specific purpose: a cutting board.

a sheet of wood, cardboard, paper, etc., with or without markings, for some special use, as a checkerboard or chessboard.

boards,

Theater.the stage: The play will go on the boards next week.
the wooden fence surrounding the playing area of an ice-hockey rink.
a racing course made of wood, used especially in track meets held indoors: his first time running on boards.

Bookbinding. stiff cardboard or other material covered with paper, cloth, or the like to form the covers for a book.

Building Trades. composition material made in large sheets, as plasterboard or corkboard.

a table, especially to serve food on.

daily meals, especially as provided for pay: twenty dollars a day for room and board.

an official group of persons who direct or supervise some activity: a board of directors.

Nautical.

the side of a ship.
one leg, or tack, of the course of a ship beating to windward.

Railroads. a fixed signal or permanent sign regulating traffic.

a flat surface, as a wall or an object of rectangular shape, on which something is posted, as notices or stock-market quotations: a bulletin board.

surfboard.

Computers.

Also called card, circuit board.a piece of fiberglass or other material upon which chips can be mounted to perform specific functions.
plugboard(def 2).

Electronics. circuit board(def 2).

a switchboard.

Australian.

the area of a woolshed where shearing is done.
a crew of shearers working in a particular woolshed.
sheep about to be sheared.

Obsolete. the edge, border, or side of anything.

verb (used with object)

to cover or close with boards (often followed by up or over): to board up a house; to board over a well.

to furnish with meals, or with meals and lodging, especially for pay: They boarded him for $50 a week.

to go on board of or enter (a ship, train, etc.).

to allow on board: We will be boarding passengers in approximately ten minutes.

to come up alongside (a ship), as to attack or to go on board: The pirate ship boarded the clipper.

Obsolete. to approach; accost.

verb (used without object)

to take one's meals, or be supplied with food and lodging at a fixed price: Several of us board at the same rooming house.

Ice Hockey. to hit an opposing player with a board check.

Idioms

across the board,

Racing.betting on a horse or dog to finish first, second, or third, so that any result where a selection wins, places, or shows enables the bettor to collect.
applying to or affecting every person, class, group, etc.

go by the board,

to go over the ship's side.
to be destroyed, neglected, or forgotten: All his devoted labor went by the board.

on board,

on or in a ship, plane, or other vehicle: There were several movie stars on board traveling incognito.
Baseball.on base: There were two men on board as the next batter came up.
present and functioning as a member of a team or organization.

Also aboard.

on the boards, in the theatrical profession: The family has been on the boards since grandfather's time.

tread the boards. tread(def 22).

Origin of board

before 900; Middle English, Old English bord board, table, shield; cognate with Dutch boord board, bord plate, German Bort, Old Norse borth, Gothic -baurd

Related formsboard·a·ble, adjectiveboard·like, adjectivere·board, verb (used with object)un·board·ed, adjective

Can be confusedboard boredboard committee council panel trust

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for board

panel, cabinet, jury, committee, catch, enter, accommodate, strip, plank, timber, slat, lath, fare, provisions, victuals, food, eats, keep, mess, conclave

Examples from the Web for board

Contemporary Examples of board

Meanwhile, almost exactly 30 years after the trial, the judge left his home to board a steamboat and was never heard from again.
New York’s Most Tragic Ghost Loves Minimalist Swedish Fashion
Nina Strochlic
January 8, 2015
Chérif was arrested in Paris in January 2005 as he was about to board a plane to Damascus along with a man named Thamer Bouchnak.
France Mourns—and Hunts
Nico Hines, Christopher Dickey
January 8, 2015
The Supreme Court eventually stepped in and ended legal segregation in the landmark 1954 decision, Brown v. Board of Education.
The ‘No Child’ Rewrite Threatens Your Kids’ Future
Jonah Edelman
January 3, 2015
The fate of AirAsia Flight 8501 and the 162 souls on board is a tragedy, but it will not remain a mystery for much longer.
Who Will Get AsiaAir 8501’s Black Boxes?
Clive Irving
December 30, 2014
We would like to extend our sincere sympathies to the family and friends of those on board QZ8501.
Wreckage, Bodies of AirAsia Crash Found
Lennox Samuels
December 30, 2014

Historical Examples of board

He quickly turned the boat to the shore, and the stranger jumped on board.
Brave and Bold
Horatio Alger
He didn't go on board till the morning on which the ship was to sail.
Brave and Bold
Horatio Alger
If you don't know my position on board this ship, it's time you found it out!
Brave and Bold
Horatio Alger
Two ropes were then hauled on board the vessel, a larger and a smaller.
Malbone
Thomas Wentworth Higginson
It was no louder than a whisper from without—the creak of a board.
Way of the Lawless
Max Brand

British Dictionary definitions for board

board

noun

a long wide flat relatively thin piece of sawn timber

a smaller flat piece of rigid material for a specific purposeironing board
(in combination)breadboard; cheeseboard

a person's food or meals, provided regularly for money or sometimes as payment for work done (esp in the phrases full board, board and lodging)

archaic a table, esp one used for eating at, and esp when laden with food

(sometimes functioning as plural)a group of people who officially administer a company, trust, etca board of directors
(as modifier)a board meeting

any other committee or councila board of interviewers

the boards (plural) the acting profession; the stage

short forblackboard, chessboard, notice board, printed circuit board, springboard, surfboard

stiff cardboard or similar material covered with paper, cloth, etc, used for the outside covers of a book

a flat thin rectangular sheet of composite material, such as plasterboard or chipboard

mainly US

a list on which stock-exchange securities and their prices are posted
informalthe stock exchange itself

nautical

the side of a ship
the leg that a sailing vessel makes on a beat to windward

Australian and NZ the part of the floor of a sheep-shearing shed, esp a raised part, where the shearers work

NZ the killing floor of an abattoir or freezing works

any of various portable surfaces specially designed for indoor games such as chess, backgammon, etc
(as modifier)board games

a set of hands in duplicate bridge
a wooden or metal board containing four slots, or often nowadays, a plastic wallet, in which the four hands are placed so that the deal may be replayed with identical hands

the hull of a sailboard, usually made of plastic, to which the mast is jointed and on which a windsurfer stands

See above board

go by the board to be in disuse, neglected, or lostin these days courtesy goes by the board

on board on or in a ship, boat, aeroplane, or other vehicle

sweep the board

(in gambling) to win all the cards or money
to win every event or prize in a contest

take on board to accept (new ideas, situations, theories, etc)

verb

to go aboard (a vessel, train, aircraft, or other vehicle)

nautical to come alongside (a vessel) before attacking or going aboard

to attack (a ship) by forcing one's way aboard

(tr; often foll by up, in, etc) to cover or shut with boards

(intr) to give or receive meals or meals and lodging in return for money or work

(sometimes foll by out) to receive or arrange for (someone, esp a child) to receive food and lodging away from home, usually in return for payment

Derived Formsboardable, adjective

Word Origin for board

Old English bord; related to Old Norse borth ship's side, table, Old High German bort ship's side, Sanskrit bardhaka a cutting off

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for board

n.1

Old English bord "a plank, flat surface," from Proto-Germanic *burdam (cf. Old Norse borð "plank," Dutch bord "board," Gothic fotu-baurd "foot-stool," German Brett "plank"), from PIE *bhrdh- "board," from root *bherdh- "to cut." See also board (n.2), with which this is so confused as practically to form one word (if indeed they were not the same word all along).

A board is thinner than a plank, and generally less than 2.5 inches thick. The transferred meaning "food" (late 14c.) is an extension of the late Old English sense of "table" (cf. boarder, boarding); hence, also, above board "honest, open" (1610s). A further extension is to "table where council is held" (1570s), then transferred to "leadership council, council (that meets at a table)," 1610s.

n.2

"side of ship," Old English bord "border, rim, ship's side," from Proto-Germanic *bordaz (cf. Old Saxon bord, Dutch boord, German Bord, Old High German bart, Old Norse barð), perhaps from the same source as board (n.1), but not all sources accept this. Connected to border; see also starboard.

If not etymologically related to board (n.1), the two forms represented in English by these words were nonetheless confused at an early date in most Germanic languages, a situation made worse in English because this Germanic root also was adopted as Medieval Latin bordus (source of Italian and Spanish bordo). It also entered Old French as bort "beam, board, plank; side of a ship" (12c., Modern French bord), either from Medieval Latin or Frankish, and from thence it came over with the Normans to mingle with its native cousins. By now the senses are inextricably tangled. Some etymology dictionaries treat them as having been the same word all along.

verb senses derived from various senses of board (n.1) and board (n.2) include "come alongside" (a ship), mid-15c. (from n.2); "put boards on, frame with boards," late 14c. (implied in boarded, from n.1); " to get onto" (a ship), 1590s, transferred from mid-19c. to stages, railway cars, aircraft, etc. (from n.2). Meaning "to be supplied with food and lodging" is from 1550s (from n.1 in transferred sense). Transitive meaning "provide with daily meals and lodging" is from 1590s. Related: Boarded; boarding.

Idioms and Phrases with board

board

see across the board; back to the drawing board; bed and board; bulletin board; by the board; go overboard; on board; open and aboveboard; room and board; stiff as a board; tread the boards.