timbers

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of timber.

   Shipwrights selected seasoned oak timbers for the vessel's frame.

   The roof's main timbers bowed under the weight of the snow.

   Note

   Only the countable senses of timber take this plural. In the mass senses, meaning standing trees or cut wood ready for building, timber stays singular: a stack of timber, not timbers. Timbers means separate beams, the squared logs that hold up a roof or frame a ship. An archaic trade use counted bundles of fur skins packed between boards the same way.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of timber.

   The mining crew foreman timbers each tunnel as the diggers advance.

   He timbers the gallery walls to keep loose rock from caving in.

   Note

   The verb's present-tense form is spelled the same as the plural noun. You can tell them apart by position: the verb follows a singular subject, as in "the crew timbers the shaft." Usually it is transitive, and its object is the thing being fitted with beams, such as a tunnel, a gallery or a roof. In the intransitive sense of landing on a tree, it takes no object at all.

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