camber
Americanverb (used with or without object)
noun
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a slight arching, upward curve, or convexity, as of the deck of a ship.
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a slightly arching piece of timber.
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Aeronautics. the rise of the curve of an airfoil, usually expressed as the ratio of the rise to the length of the chord of the airfoil.
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Automotive. the outward or inward tilt of a wheel, called positive when the top tilts outward and negative when it tilts inward, measured as the angle, in degrees, between the vertical and a plane through the circumference of the tire.
noun
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a slight upward curve to the centre of the surface of a road, ship's deck, etc
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another name for bank 2
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an outward inclination of the front wheels of a road vehicle so that they are slightly closer together at the bottom than at the top
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Also called: hog. a small arching curve of a beam or girder provided to lessen deflection and improve appearance
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aerofoil curvature expressed by the ratio of the maximum height of the aerofoil mean line to its chord
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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cambersimple
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camberssimple
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have camberedperfect
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has camberedperfect
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am camberingprogressive
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are camberingprogressive
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is camberingprogressive
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have been camberingperfect progressive
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has been camberingperfect progressive
Past
-
camberedsimple
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had camberedperfect
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was camberingprogressive
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were camberingprogressive
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had been camberingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of camber
1610–20; < Middle French (north) cambre bent < Latin camur hooked, curved
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:
Rough pavement or smooth; uphill or down; off camber or on; trail-braking into corners or powering out.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2025
“You’re more likely to be blocked out by those trees on the left just because of the camber of the fairway. Then there’s no decision to be made there. You can’t go for the green.”
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 12, 2022
Back on 6, Kupcho sends a sensational second pin high to six feet, using the camber of the green to gather the ball right to left and towards the hole.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 5, 2021
Hunting gold, on a road with no camber, Down valleys, up mountains they’d clamber.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 5, 2018
He talked about camber and the life it imparted to a shell when wood was put under tension.
From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown
It's all going to come down to good old Epsom and this great race," Herbert says, "and the course and the cambers and how the race pans out.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 1, 2012
The best cambers for varying velocities, angles of incidence, and thickness of surface, are found by means of wind-tunnel research.
From The Aeroplane Speaks Fifth Edition by Barber, H. (Horatio)
On our trip we visited Madeira Island, disembarking at noon, the cambers keeling us into warm, shallow water, the weather perfect.
From Voices from the Past by Bartlett, Paul Alexander
The best cambers for varying velocities, angles of incidence, and thicknesses of surface, are found by means of wind-tunnel research.
From The Aeroplane Speaks by Barber, H. (Horatio)
Who knows whether they want twin tips or a more cambered ski if they’ve never even ridden a chairlift?
From Washington Post ● Dec. 9, 2021
But taken by itself, the principle of action and reaction also fails to explain the lower pressure atop the wing, which exists in that region irrespective of whether the airfoil is cambered.
From Scientific American ● Feb. 4, 2020
The face is an L-shaped structure where the sole section wraps well into the toe and across the radius of the cambered sole.
From Golf Digest ● Dec. 7, 2019
Ms. Lopatkina, the chief attraction, is undoubtedly a beautiful dancer; gorgeous cambered feet, tapered legs, soulfully arched back and winged arms.
From New York Times ● Mar. 1, 2016
If the beams are slightly curved or cambered, as most trunks of oak are, so much the better, but they must always be placed camber side up.
From Wood and Garden Notes and thoughts, practical and critical, of a working amateur by Jekyll, Gertrude
The part of a dockyard where cambering is performed, and timber kept.
From The Sailor's Word-Book An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc. by Belcher, Edward, Sir
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.
