jamb
1 Americannoun
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jambs
plural
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Architecture, Building Trades.
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either of the vertical sides of a doorway, arch, window, or other opening.
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either of two stones, timbers, etc., forming the sidepieces for the frame of an opening.
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Armor. greave.
verb (used with or without object)
noun
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a vertical side member of a doorframe, window frame, or lining
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a vertical inside face of an opening in a wall
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of jamb
1350–1400; Middle English jambe < Middle French: leg, jamb < Late Latin gamba, variant of camba pastern, leg < Greek kampḗ bend of a limb
Explanation
A jamb is one of the upright boards or posts that support a door or window frame. Your front door shuts securely in between two jambs. When a house builder frames a doorway, she sets two jambs at the sides of the opening, with what's called a lintel at the top. The door fits between the jambs. Windows have jambs too — if you replace your existing windows, you may need a whole new frame, including new jambs. The Old French origin is jambe, which means "pier or side post," but was originally "a leg or a shank," from the Late Latin gamba, "leg."
Vocabulary lists containing jamb
Learning Down The House: Parts of Your Home
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The Odyssey
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Paper Towns
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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:
The 10-year-old stood outside the only home he’d ever known — a home he could traverse in total darkness, whose every floorboard and door jamb he knew like the back of his hand.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 28, 2025
Arredondo described the classroom door as reinforced with a hefty steel jamb, designed to keep an attacker on the outside from forcing their way in.
From Salon ● Jun. 10, 2022
Thankfully none of players entering the locker room afterward clanked off the door jamb.
From Seattle Times ● May 27, 2022
If there are gaps where the window sash or door closes against the jamb, it could be time to replace the weather stripping.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 16, 2022
One says something to another and the jamb splinters and the door bangs open.
From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr
Lacking an automated connection to a monitoring service, she connects exposed wires running along jambs to a light switch.
From Salon ● Dec. 6, 2023
“I started with a little campfire and it had eyes and it was really amorphous, like going through door jambs and keyholes” he said.
From New York Times ● Jun. 20, 2023
You can typically make the height of the door’s rough opening just one-quarter inch longer than the factory length of the door jambs.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 2, 2021
Even if it means his leaving scratch marks on the chamber’s door jambs on the way out.
From Washington Times ● Apr. 13, 2021
Bulging tongues of ice had broken doors off their hinges, and through their splintered jambs I could see evidence of a raid: kicked- over furniture, drawers torn open, snows of paper on the floor.
From "Hollow City" by Ransom Riggs
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.
