timbering

Pluraltimberings

1. 1
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A structure, part of a structure, or other item built from timber.

   The cottage's heavy oak timbering gave it a sturdy, antique look.

   Engineers inspected the timbering that shored up the tunnel walls.

   Similarwoodwork, beams, framing, framework, shoring

   Note

   Here the -ing of timber + -ing names the finished woodwork rather than the labor of fitting it. That is why the noun works as a mass (heavy oak timbering) and as a count (timberings). Its natural home is building and engineering: the Railway Magazine in 1949 praised the 'timbering and centring' of a viaduct's main arch as masterpieces of joinery.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle of timber.

   Crews were timbering the gallery to keep the roof from collapsing.

   Timbering the trench properly prevented the sides from caving in.

   Note

   The participle brings the verb's constructions with it. In the sense of fitting with timbers it is transitive and takes a direct object: timbering the gallery, timbering a trench. Beside it stands an intransitive use for a bird lighting on a tree, while the senses 'to build' and 'to make a nest' are obsolete. The gerund is easily mistaken for the noun for timberwork. The gerund takes an object, and the noun takes an article.

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