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definitions

board

[bawrd, bohrd]
See more synonyms for board on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a piece of wood sawed thin, and of considerable length and breadth compared with the thickness.
  2. a flat slab of wood or other material for some specific purpose: a cutting board.
  3. a sheet of wood, cardboard, paper, etc., with or without markings, for some special use, as a checkerboard or chessboard.
  4. boards,
    1. Theater.the stage: The play will go on the boards next week.
    2. the wooden fence surrounding the playing area of an ice-hockey rink.
    3. a racing course made of wood, used especially in track meets held indoors: his first time running on boards.
  5. Bookbinding. stiff cardboard or other material covered with paper, cloth, or the like to form the covers for a book.
  6. Building Trades. composition material made in large sheets, as plasterboard or corkboard.
  7. a table, especially to serve food on.
  8. daily meals, especially as provided for pay: twenty dollars a day for room and board.
  9. an official group of persons who direct or supervise some activity: a board of directors.
  10. Nautical.
    1. the side of a ship.
    2. one leg, or tack, of the course of a ship beating to windward.
  11. Railroads. a fixed signal or permanent sign regulating traffic.
  12. 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.
  13. surfboard.
  14. Computers.
    1. Also called card, circuit board.a piece of fiberglass or other material upon which chips can be mounted to perform specific functions.
    2. plugboard(def 2).
  15. Electronics. circuit board(def 2).
  16. a switchboard.
  17. Australian.
    1. the area of a woolshed where shearing is done.
    2. a crew of shearers working in a particular woolshed.
    3. sheep about to be sheared.
  18. Obsolete. the edge, border, or side of anything.
verb (used with object)
  1. to cover or close with boards (often followed by up or over): to board up a house; to board over a well.
  2. to furnish with meals, or with meals and lodging, especially for pay: They boarded him for $50 a week.
  3. to go on board of or enter (a ship, train, etc.).
  4. to allow on board: We will be boarding passengers in approximately ten minutes.
  5. to come up alongside (a ship), as to attack or to go on board: The pirate ship boarded the clipper.
  6. Obsolete. to approach; accost.
verb (used without object)
  1. 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.
  2. Ice Hockey. to hit an opposing player with a board check.
Idioms
  1. across the board,
    1. 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.
    2. applying to or affecting every person, class, group, etc.
  2. go by the board,
    1. to go over the ship's side.
    2. to be destroyed, neglected, or forgotten: All his devoted labor went by the board.
  3. on board,
    1. on or in a ship, plane, or other vehicle: There were several movie stars on board traveling incognito.
    2. Baseball.on base: There were two men on board as the next batter came up.
    3. present and functioning as a member of a team or organization.
    Also aboard.
  4. on the boards, in the theatrical profession: The family has been on the boards since grandfather's time.
  5. 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. 2018

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

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.

British Dictionary definitions for board

board

noun
  1. a long wide flat relatively thin piece of sawn timber
    1. a smaller flat piece of rigid material for a specific purposeironing board
    2. (in combination)breadboard; cheeseboard
  3. 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)
  4. archaic a table, esp one used for eating at, and esp when laden with food
    1. (sometimes functioning as plural)a group of people who officially administer a company, trust, etca board of directors
    2. (as modifier)a board meeting
  6. any other committee or councila board of interviewers
  7. the boards (plural) the acting profession; the stage
  8. short forblackboard, chessboard, notice board, printed circuit board, springboard, surfboard
  9. stiff cardboard or similar material covered with paper, cloth, etc, used for the outside covers of a book
  10. a flat thin rectangular sheet of composite material, such as plasterboard or chipboard
  11. mainly US
    1. a list on which stock-exchange securities and their prices are posted
    2. informalthe stock exchange itself
  12. nautical
    1. the side of a ship
    2. the leg that a sailing vessel makes on a beat to windward
  13. Australian and NZ the part of the floor of a sheep-shearing shed, esp a raised part, where the shearers work
  14. NZ the killing floor of an abattoir or freezing works
    1. any of various portable surfaces specially designed for indoor games such as chess, backgammon, etc
    2. (as modifier)board games
    1. a set of hands in duplicate bridge
    2. 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
  17. the hull of a sailboard, usually made of plastic, to which the mast is jointed and on which a windsurfer stands
  18. See above board
  19. go by the board to be in disuse, neglected, or lostin these days courtesy goes by the board
  20. on board on or in a ship, boat, aeroplane, or other vehicle
  21. sweep the board
    1. (in gambling) to win all the cards or money
    2. to win every event or prize in a contest
  22. take on board to accept (new ideas, situations, theories, etc)
verb
  1. to go aboard (a vessel, train, aircraft, or other vehicle)
  2. nautical to come alongside (a vessel) before attacking or going aboard
  3. to attack (a ship) by forcing one's way aboard
  4. (tr; often foll by up, in, etc) to cover or shut with boards
  5. (intr) to give or receive meals or meals and lodging in return for money or work
  6. (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.

v.

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.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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.

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.