carpenter

Meanings

Noun

• A person skilled at carpentry, the trade of cutting and joining timber in order to construct buildings or other structures.
• A senior rating in ships responsible for all the woodwork onboard; in the days of sail, a warrant officer responsible for the hull, masts, spars and boats of a ship, and whose responsibility was to sound the well to see if the ship was making water.
• A two-wheeled carriage.
• A carpenter bee.
• A woodlouse.

Verb

• To work as a carpenter, cutting and joining timber.

Related

Similar words

• joiner, chippy

Origin

• From Middle English carpenter, from Anglo-Norman carpenter (compare Old French charpentier), from Late Latin carpentārius, from Latin carpentārius, from Latin carpentum, from Gaulish carbantos, from Proto-Celtic *karbantos, probably related to Proto-Celtic *karros. More at car.