rabbet
Americannoun
-
a deep notch formed in or near one edge of a board, framing timber, etc., so that something else can be fitted into it or so that a door or the like can be closed against it.
-
a broad groove let into the surface of a board or the like; dado.
verb (used with object)
-
to cut a rabbet in (a board or the like).
-
to join (boards or the like) by means of a rabbet or rabbets.
verb (used without object)
noun
-
a recess, groove, or step, usually of rectangular section, cut into a surface or along the edge of a piece of timber to receive a mating piece
-
a joint made between two pieces of timber using a rabbet
verb
-
to cut or form a rabbet in (timber)
-
to join (pieces of timber) using a rabbet
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of rabbet
1350–1400; Middle English rabet < Old French rabat, derivative of rabattre to beat back, beat down; see rebate 1
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:
There is a rabbet in their inside upper edge, to receive the hatches or gratings.
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 Sir Edward Belcher
Those fitted in a rabbet to the outside of the quarter-gallery doors, with the object of keeping out the sea, in case of the gallery being carried away.
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 Sir Edward Belcher
The keel is 14 in. deep, the part below the rabbet of the garboard or lowest strakes of the planking, being 11 in. deep, and 4½ in. thick at the bottom.
From Ancient and Modern Ships. Part 1. Wooden Sailing Ships by George C. V. Holmes
The sinking a rabbet in the dead-wood, wherein the heels of the timbers rest.
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 Sir Edward Belcher
A rabbet is made for the reception of the glass, and four strips of strap iron, overlapping both the glass, and the wood, and screwed to the wood, keep the glass in position.
From Scientific American Supplement, No. 365, December 30, 1882 by Various
The end rails should be rabbeted on the inside for the latticework and the glass.
From Mission Furniture How to Make It, Part 2 by H. H. (Henry Haven) Windsor
The meeting stiles and sometimes those on the opposite side have rabbeted joints, the latter fitting the jambs of the window frame.
From The Colonial Architecture of Philadelphia by Frank Cousins
The end rails should be cut to length and their tenons worked after one edge of each has been rabbeted as were the posts.
From Mission Furniture How to Make It, Part 2 by H. H. (Henry Haven) Windsor
Or the runner and guide may be made of one piece properly rabbeted out.
From Handwork in Wood by William Noyes
The door frame is mitered at the corners and rabbeted on the inner edge to take the panel.
From Mission Furniture How to Make It, Part 2 by H. H. (Henry Haven) Windsor
"All you need is one reasonably respectable wife," says Public Relations Wizard Gig Young, rabbeting in a plot gimmick designed to keep a flapdoodle comedy from collapsing in the first reel.
From Time Magazine Archive
These included "Planing, moulding, rabbeting, grooving, mortising, and sawing, both in coarse and fine work, in curved, winding, and transverse directions, and shaping wood in complicated forms."
From Inventions in the Century by William Henry Doolittle
The sides are to be built up separately, the corners being lapped and glued after rabbeting the under arrises sufficient to let the glass in.
From Mission Furniture How to Make It, Part 2 by H. H. (Henry Haven) Windsor
A rabbeting plane will be needed for this.
From Mission Furniture How to Make It, Part 3 by H. H. (Henry Haven) Windsor
Instead of rabbeting the mirror frame, a 1/4 by 3/8-in. fillet of oak is nailed around to form the recess, the walnut frame and oak fillet making a pretty contrast.
From Mission Furniture How to Make It, Part 2 by H. H. (Henry Haven) Windsor
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.
