board
Meanings
- A relatively long, wide and thin piece of any material, usually wood or similar, often for use in construction or furniture-making.
- A device (e.g., switchboard) containing electrical switches and other controls and designed to control lights, sound, telephone connections, etc.
- A flat surface with markings for playing a board game.
- Short for blackboard, whiteboard, chessboard, surfboard, circuit board, message board (on the Internet), bulletin board, etc.
- A committee that manages the business of an organization, e.g., a board of directors.
- Regular meals in a place of lodging; the price paid for them.
- The side of a ship.
- The distance a sailing vessel runs between tacks when working to windward.
- The wall that surrounds an ice hockey rink.
- A long, narrow table, like that used in a medieval dining hall.
- Paper made thick and stiff like a board, for book covers, etc.; pasteboard.
- A level or stage having a particular two-dimensional layout.
- To step or climb onto or otherwise enter a ship, aircraft, train or other conveyance.
- To provide someone with meals and lodging, usually in exchange for money.
- To receive meals and lodging in exchange for money.
- To (at least attempt to) capture an enemy ship by going alongside and grappling her, then invading her with a boarding party.
- To obtain meals, or meals and lodgings, statedly for compensation
- To approach (someone); to make advances to, accost.
- To cover with boards or boarding.
- To hit (someone) with a wooden board.
- To write something on a board, especially a blackboard or whiteboard.
- A rebound.
- A surname.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
A wooden board Board (duplicate bridge) From Middle English boord, boorde, bord, bourd, burd, from Old English bord, from Proto-West Germanic *bord, from Proto-Germanic *burdą (“board, plank; edge; table”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰers- (“tip, top”) + *-dʰh₁eti or *bʰerH- (“to pierce; to strike”) + *-dʰh₁eti. The senses "food" and "council" are by metonymy from the sense "table." Cognates Cognate with Scots buird (“board; table”), Yola borde (“table”), West Frisian boerd (“board”), Dutch bord (“dish, plate; board, plank; sign”), boord (“border, boundary; bank, shore”), German Bord (“shelf”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish bord (“plank; table”), Elfdalian buord (“table”), Faroese and Icelandic borð (“board, plank; table”), Gothic *𐌱𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌳 (*baurd, “board, plank”) (whence 𐍆𐍉𐍄𐌿𐌱𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌳 (fōtubaurd, “footstool”).