router

Pluralrouters

Formsrouters, routering, routered

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A device that directs packets of data using network-layer (OSI layer 3) information, most often Internet Protocol addresses.

   The office router forwards traffic between several internal networks.

   Network engineers configured the router to give priority to video packets.

   Note

   The network engineer's sense is defined by where in the protocol stack the device works. It reads network-layer information, the third layer of the OSI model. Used without qualification, it almost always means an Internet Protocol router. The word has also moved into the home. A 2022 review of Synology's SRM 1.3 software calls managing one a massive chore full of jargon and screens saying 'invalid'.

2. 2
   USROW-tur/ˈɹaʊtɚ/UKUKROW-tuh/ˈɹaʊtə(ɹ)/US

   nouncountable

   In carpentry, a power tool with a rapidly spinning bit, used for cutting grooves.

   She guided the router carefully along the edge of the tabletop.

   A handheld router makes quick work of cutting decorative grooves.

   Note

   Grooves are only half of what it does. The same tool shapes edges, as when a table is given an attractive edge with a router. It shares its rout + -er origin with two older hand planes, the sash plane and the hooked plane. It is also the tool behind the woodworker's verb routering.

3. 3
   nouncountable

   A device that connects local area networks into a larger internet, passing along data addressed to networks that can deliver it; a network gateway.

   The router passes datagrams between the building's separate networks.

   Administrators rely on the router as the gateway joining their local networks to the wider internet.

   Similargateway

   Note

   Here the router is defined by what it joins rather than by the layer it reads. It stitches local area networks into a larger internet, written in lowercase to mean any network of networks. The least such a device must do is pass each datagram toward the network that can deliver it. Gateway is the near-synonym. the layer-3 definition describes the same box from the inside.

4. 4
   verbtransitive

   To hollow out or cut a groove in a material using a router power tool.

   The craftsman routed a decorative pattern into the tabletop.

   They router each board carefully to avoid splintering the wood.

   Similarcarve, groove, gouge

   Note

   This verb is made straight from the tool's name, and it keeps the -er in every form: routering, routered, routered out. In Hooper and Wells's Modern Cabinetwork (1952), carcase ends are grooved 'by routering'. Routered holes turn up even in Gage and Duerr's Hand-Rearing Birds (2007), filled with syrup for sapsuckers. The full form keeps the woodworking verb distinct from routed and routing.

5. 5
   nouncountable

   A worker who sends items onward or directs where they go.

   The mailroom router assigns each parcel to the correct delivery route.

   Each shipment passes through a router who directs it to its destination.

   Similardispatcher

   Note

   A job title from the back offices of commerce, built from route + -er: the person who decides which way goods travel. Louis J. von Rago's Production Analysis and Control (1963) lists routers beside schedulers, expediters and dispatchers, and that is its natural company. The spelling hides a second word, though. the carpentry tool comes from rout + -er, not from route, so the two routers are only lookalikes.

6. 6
   nouncountable

   In integrated circuit and printed circuit board design, an algorithm that adds all the wires needed to connect the placed components while obeying the design rules.

   The router connected thousands of components without breaking any design rules.

   Engineers tuned the router to reduce the total wire length on the chip.

   Note

   Electronic design automation uses the word for software, not hardware. The router's turn comes after placement, once every component sits in its position, and its job is to lay down the wires between them. Success is measured against the design rules. A finished route connects everything without breaking any of them, and engineers tune the router for goals such as shorter total wire length.

7. 7
   USROW-tur/ˈɹaʊtɚ/UKUKROW-tuh/ˈɹaʊtə(ɹ)/US

   nouncountable

   A woodworking plane, similar in form to a spokeshave, designed for shaping the inner edges of circular sashes.

   He reached for the router to finish the inside curve of the sash.

   Drawn toward him with both hands, the old router shaped the rounded frame more cleanly than a chisel could.

8. 8
   USROW-tur/ˈɹaʊtɚ/UKUKROW-tuh/ˈɹaʊtə(ɹ)/US

   nouncountable

   A woodworking plane for leveling the floor of a recess, fitted with a hooked cutter that reaches far beneath its sole.

   The joiner cleaned out the recess with a router until the floor was even.

   A router levels the bottom of a mortise better than any chisel can.

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