woodwork
English edit
Etymology edit
From Middle English woodewerk (“carpentry”), equivalent to wood + work.
Noun edit
woodwork (usually uncountable, plural woodworks)
- (uncountable, countable) Something made from wood, especially cabinets and trim (e.g., baseboards, doorframes) made from millwork.
- Hyponym: cabinetwork
- 2008 September 14, Bill Cunniff, “A stroll through OLD IRVING PARK”, in The Chicago Sun-Times:
- Some woodwork and the plaster ceiling medallions have been duplicated to match the originals.
- (uncountable) Working with wood.
- Synonym: woodworking
- He does woodwork as a hobby.
- 1906, Tasmania. Education Dept, The educational record, volumes 1-6, page 14:
- The unthinking man assumes that if woodwork is to be taught, the best person to do it must be a carpenter
- (only in plural, often in proper names) A workshop or factory devoted to making wood products.
- 1911, North Carolina Dept. of Conservation and Development, Economic papers, numbers 23-28, page 7:
- The woodworks now find utilization for almost every scrap. Pine stumps are changing into turpentine bottles.
- (figurative, by extension) A place of concealment or obscurity.
- out of the woodwork
- Friends and relatives were coming out of the woodwork to celebrate his good fortune.
- So when he wants to, he can just kind of blend into the woodwork.
- (soccer, rugby) The frame of the goal, i.e. the goalpost or crossbar.
- That goal was so close, it went in off the woodwork.
- 2012 May 5, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool”, in BBC Sport[1]:
- Carroll thought he had equalised with his header against the bar with eight minutes left. Liverpool claimed the ball had cross the line and Chelsea were grateful for a miraculous intervention from Cech to turn his effort on to the woodwork.
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
handiwork of wood
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wood product
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working with wood
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a woodworking shop or factory
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goalpost or crossbar
Verb edit
woodwork (third-person singular simple present woodworks, present participle woodworking, simple past and past participle woodworked)
- (LGBT, dated) To go completely stealth as a transgender person. (From the idea of fading or blending into the woodwork.)
- 1997, Patrick Califia, Sex Changes: The Politics of Transgenderism:
- "Instead of 'woodworking,' or disappearing into the mainstream — as we are capable of and qualified to do — we have chosen not to do so." Outside of the transsexual community, other changes were taking place that made it possible for […]
- 2001 November, Out, page 80:
- Maybe — and this was essential for political activism — you didn't have to "woodwork" but could be transgendered for all to see. By the mid '90s the Internet had arrived — and spread these new ideas like wildfire. […]