Board sb.

Forms: 1–7 bord, (4–6 borde), 4–7 boord, (5–6 boorde, bourde, 6–7 bourd, 6 boarde), 6– board; north. 4–8 burd, 4–7 burde, 4 Sc. buird, 6– Sc. brod: cf. BRED. [A word or agglomeration of words of complicated history, representing two originally distinct sbs., already blended in OE., and subsequently reinforced in ME. by French uses of one of them, and possibly by Scandinavian uses of one or both. (1) OE. had bord¹ neut. ‘board, plank, shield, ? table,’ a Common Teut. str. neut. sb., = OFris. and OS. bord (MDu. bort -de, Du. boord ‘board,’ bord ‘shelf, plate, trencher’), MHG. and mod.G. bort ‘board,’ Goth. baurd in fotubaurd ‘foot-stool,’ ON. borð ‘board, plank, table, maintenance at table’ (Sw. and Da. bord table):—OTeut. *bord-o(m, repr. an Aryan *bhṛdhom, Skr. *bṛdham: see BRED sb. (2) OE. had bord² ‘border, rim, side, ship’s side,’ esp. in phrases innan, utan bordes, also a Common Teut. sb., orig. str. masc. but often also (by confusion with bord¹) neuter: cf. OS. bord masc. (? neut.), MDu. bort, boort -de, Du. boord masc., ‘border, edge, ship’s side,’ OHG., MHG. bort masc., mod.G. bord masc. (and neut.) ‘margin, border, ship-board,’ ON. borð neut. ‘margin, shore, ship-board’ (Sw., Da. bord ‘ship-board’):—OTeut. *bord-oz side, border, rim. (3) Relationship between these two words is uncertain: Franck suggests that bord² is a ppl. form from vbl. root ber- to raise, representing an Aryan *bhṛtós ‘raised, made projecting.’ But the two were associated and confused at an early date: in most of the Teutonic langs., some of the senses of the masc. word, in ON. and perh. in OE. all of them, have gone over to the neuter. It is certain that the sense ‘side or board of a ship’ belongs to bord²; so prob. did that of ‘shield,’ the original sense being ‘rim, limb, or border of the shield’; the sense ‘table’ is doubtful. (4) The WGer. bord² masc. ‘border, edge, coast, side, ship’s side’ was adopted in Romanic, giving med.L. bordus, It., Sp., Pg. bordo, F. bord. In the ME. period, and subsequently, the French use of the word has in return greatly influenced the Eng., so that certain modern uses and phrases of board are really from French. It is also possible that the development in ME. was in some points (see branch II.) due to Scandinavian uses.]

  I.  A board of wood or other substance. [OE. bord¹:—OTeut. bordo(m.]

  1.  A piece of timber sawn thin, and having considerable extent of surface; usually a rectangular piece of much greater length than breadth; a thin plank. Rarely used without the article, as in made of board, i.e., of thin wood.

  Technically, board is distinguished from plank by its thinness: it ought to be more than 4 inches in width, and not more than 2¹/₂ in thickness, but is generally much thinner.

c. 1000.  Ælfric, Gen. vi. 14. Wirc ðe nu ænne arc of aheawenum bordum.

c. 1300.  K. Alis., 6415. Al so hit weore an oken bord.

1375.  Barbour, Bruce, IV. 126. Fyre all cleir Soyn throu the thik burd can appeir.

1393.  Langl., P. Pl., C. XII. 239. He shop þe ship of shides and of bordes.

c. 1440.  York Myst., viii. 97. To hewe þis burde I wyll begynne.

1535.  Coverdale, Zeph. ii. 14. Bordes of Cedre.

1596.  Shaks., Merch. V., I. iii. 32. Ships are but boords.

1611.  Bible, Acts xxvii. 44. Some on boords, and some on broken pieces of the ship.

1661.  S. Partridge, Double Scale Proport., 36. A plain Superficies, as a Board or Plank.

1716–8.  Lady M. W. Montague, Lett., I. xxxviii. 149. Covered … with boards to keep out the rain.

1798.  Southey, Ballads, Cross Roads, 25. They carried her upon a board In the clothes in which she died.

1826.  J. Wilson, Noct. Ambr., Wks. 1855, I. 122. The cheeks never muve, nae mair than gin they were brods.

1881.  Young, Every Man his own Mechanic, 50. § 146. Floor boards are, or ought to be, an inch in thickness. Boards are generally distinguished by their thickness as ‘half-inch board,’ ‘three-quarter board,’ ‘seven-eights board,’ etc.

  b.  A flat slab of wood fitted for various purposes, indicated either contextually, or by some word prefixed, as ironing-board, knife-board, etc., the backing, burnishing, cutting, gilding boards, used by bookbinders, etc., the bare boards (of a floor). So BACK-BOARD, etc.

1552.  Huloet, Bourde or shelf whervpon pottes are sette.

a. 1837.  Grace Kennedy, Anna Ross, 101. Anna … found that she liked the occupation quite as well as lying on a board to keep her figure straight.

1845.  Eliza Acton, Mod. Cookery, xvi. (1852), 336. Dust a little flour over the board and paste-roller.

1864.  Tennyson, Grandmoth., 79. Pattering over the boards, she comes and goes at her will.

1864.  ‘Holme Lee,’ Silver Age (1865), I. 134. An armful of starched muslins and laces, fresh and crisp from the ironing-board.

  c.  spec. in pl. The stage of a theater; hence in various phrases. Cf. STAGE.

a. 1779.  Garrick, in Boswell, Johnson (1848), 490/1. The most vulgar ruffian that ever went upon boards.

1815.  Scribbleomania, 120. To gain a footing upon the theatrical boards.

1838.  Dickens, Mem. Grimaldi, i. He was brought out by his father on the boards of Old Drury.

1883.  E. R. Russell, in Fortn. Rev., 470. One of the most honest actors that ever trod the boards.

  2.  A tablet or extended surface of wood, whether formed of a single wide board, or of several united at the edges.

  Used e.g., for educational purposes (black board), for stretching paper on in drawing, for molding, for modelling, for kneading or making pastry on (bake-board, paste-board), for arithmetical calculations (see ABACUS), for reflecting or reinforcing sound (sounding-board), for standing on (foot-board), for springing or diving from (spring-board, diving-board), for temporarily closing an aperture, chimney-place, window, etc., etc. Also extended to tablets of other material, e.g., papier-maché, similarly used.

  b.  esp. (= notice-board.) A tablet upon which public notices and intimations are written, or to which they are affixed.

  To keep one’s name on the boards: to remain a member of a college (at Cambridge).

c. 1340.  Cursor M., 16684. Abovyn his hed … a borde was made fast There-on was the tytle wretyn.

c. 1400.  Ywaine & Gaw., 186. A burde hung us biforn … nowther of yren, ne of tre.

1566.  Knox, Hist. Ref., Wks. 1846, I. 227. Compelled to kyss a paynted brod (which thei called ‘Nostre Dame’).

1626.  Bacon, Sylva, § 145. The strings of a Lute … do give a far greater Sound, by reason of the Knot and Board, and Concave underneath.

1692.  Washington, trans. Milton’s Def. Pop., vii. Wks. (1851), 179. Go on, why do you take away the Board [abacum]? Do you not understand Progression in Arithmetick?

1847.  Tennyson, Princess, II. 60. Which [statutes] hastily subscribed, We enter’d on the boards.

1870.  F. Wilson, Ch. Lindisf., 100. On a board amidst the firs … is a second notification.

1883.  Daily Tel., 15 May, 2/7. This hit [at cricket] caused three figures to appear on the board.

1885.  Free Ch. Coll. Calendar, 21. The matriculation takes place in the Senate Hall at times indicated on the Board at the gate.

  c.  spec. The tablet or frame on which some games are played, as chess-board, draught-board, bagatelle-board, backgammon-board; the frame used for scoring at cribbage. Often fig.

1474.  Caxton, Chesse, 6. The maner of the table, of the chesse borde.

1647.  Ward, Simp. Cobler, 67. They will play away King, Queen … Pawnes, and all, before they will turn up the board.

a. 1674.  Clarendon, Hist. Reb. (1704), III. XV. 497. There is scarce any thing but pawns left upon the board.

1824.  Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. I. (1863), 217. I cannot help suspecting that, board for board, we cribbage-players are as well amused as they [chess-players].

1880.  Disraeli, Endym., viii. 35. The Tories … were swept off the board.

  3.  A kind of thick stiff paper; a substance formed by pasting or squeezing layers of paper together; usually in combinations, as pasteboard, cardboard, mill-board, Bristol board, perforated board.

1660.  Act 12 Chas. II., iv. Sched., Boards vocat.Past-boards for bookes.

  4.  Bookbinding. Rectangular pieces of strong pasteboard used for the covers of books. A book in boards has these only covered with paper; if they are covered with cloth it is in cloth boards; if with leather, parchment, or the like, the book is bound. Formerly (still occas.) the boards were of thin wood, as ‘an ancient tome in oaken boards.’

1533.  More, Apol., iv. Wks. 850/2. I wil be bounden to eate it, though the booke be bounden in boardes.

1533–4.  Act 25 Hen. VIII., xv. § 1. Printed bookes … bounde in bourdes, some in lether, and some in parchement.

1549.  Bk. Com. Prayer (Colophon), [To] sell this present booke … bounde in paste or in boordes.

1790.  Scott, in Lockhart (1839), I. 233. The bookseller … had not one in boards.

1832.  Athenæum, No. 241. 375. Published in a neat pocket volume, cloth boards.

1852.  Househ. Wds., VI. 290. A little drab volume in boards.

1883.  C. K. Paul, in Fortn. Rev., April, 495. In the case of really good books, ‘boards’ should always be regarded as temporary inadequate coverings.

  II.  A table. [A doubtful sense of OE. bord; but common already in 12th c. Cf. ON. borð, used also as in sense 7, Sw., Da. bord.]

  † 5.  gen. A table. Obs. (exc. in specific senses.)

a. 1000.  Ags. Ps. (Spelm.), lxviii[ix]. 23 (Bosw.). Geweorþe bord oððe mese [mensa] heora beforan him.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 14733. [Iesus] þair bordes ouerkest, þair penis spilt.

c. 1400.  Apol. Loll., 57. Þe auteris of Crist are maad þe bordis of chaungis.

c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, 1657. There were bordis full bright … of Sedur tre fyn.

c. 1470.  Henry, Wallace, II. 279. Sche gart graith up a burd … With carpetts cled.

1771.  P. Parsons, Newmarket, II. 24. It is also of great use at that board of green cloth, the billiard-table.

  (With the following cf. also sense 2 c.)

  b.  Above board: open, openly, in the sight of all the company; see ABOVE-BOARD. Similarly † Under board: secretly, deceptively (obs.).

1603.  Sir C. Heydon, Jud. Astrol., ii. 67. After the fashion of iugglers, to occupie the minde of the spectatour, while in the meane time he plaies vnder board.

1620.  R. Carpenter, Conscionable Chr. (1623), 118. All his dealings are square and above the boord.

1686.  W. de Britaine, Hum. Prud., xvi. 74. Keep formality above board, but Prudence and Wisdom under Deck.

1841.  L. Hunt, Seer, II. (1864), 61. All … was open and above-board.

  c.  To sweep the board (at cards): to take all the cards, to pocket all the stakes.

1680.  Cotton, in Singer, Hist. Cards (1816), 346. He who hath five cards of a suit … sweeps the board.

1711.  Pope, Rape Lock, III. 50. Spadillio first … Led off two captive trumps, and swept the board.

1822.  Scott, Nigel, xxi. ’Tis the sitting gamester sweeps the board.

  6.  spec. A table used for meals; now, always, a table spread for a repast. Chiefly poetical, exc. in certain phrases, esp. in association with bed to denote domestic relations; see BED 1 c. † God’s board: an old name of the Lord’s table, or Communion table in a church. † To begin the board: to take precedence at table.

a. 1200.  Moral Ode, 307, in Lamb. Hom., 179. Be-fore godes borde.

c. 1200.  Trin. Coll. Hom., 93. Mi bord is maked. Cumeð to borde.

a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 324. Hwon gredie hundes stondeð biuoren þe borde.

1340.  Ayenb., 235. Hi serueþ at godes borde.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Prol., 52. Fful ofte tyme he hadde the bord bigonne.

c. 1440.  Gesta Rom. (1879), 259. Afor mete, whenne the bordes er sette and made redye.

c. 1450.  Sir Beues (1887), 1957. Palmer, thou semest best to me … Begyn the borde, I the pray.

1484.  Ripon Ch. Acts (Surtees Soc.), 162. Here I take the, Margaret, to my hanfest wif, to hold and to have, at bed and at burd.

1526.  Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 10. With humble & reuerent loue go to the borde of god.

1553.  Primer, in Liturgies Edw. VI. (1844), 375. Pray we to God the Almighty Lord … To send his blessing on this board.

1561.  Hollybush, Hom. Apoth., 27 a. And when thou wilt ryse from the borde or supper.

1606.  Holland, Sueton., 38. Inviting a friend to his bourd.

1636.  Featly, Clavis Myst., 340. To present ourselves at the Lord’s board.

1815.  Scott, Ld. of Isles, II. xvii. Gleaming o’er the social board.

1862.  Trollope, Orley F., viii. (ed. 4), 56. He looked at the banquet which was spread upon his board.

1869.  Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), III. xi. 12. The wife whom he had once driven away from his hearth and board.

  b.  ? A wooden tray. (Cf. sense 2.)

c. 1475[?].  Sqr. lowe Degre, 464. There he them warned … To take up the bordes everychone … Full lowe he set hym on his kne, And voyded his borde full gentely.

  7.  transf. Food served at the table; daily meals provided in a lodging or boarding-house according to stipulation; the supply of daily provisions; entertainment. Often joined with bed or lodging.

  [Cf. ON. vera á borði með to be at board with.]

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Chan. Yem. Prol. & T., 464. Sche wolde suffre him no thing for to pay For bord ne clothing.

1465.  Marg. Paston, Lett., 505, II. 193. He payth for hys borde wykely xxd.

1466.  Mann. & Househ. Exp., 211. For v. mennes bord … ijs. xd.

1575.  Brieff Disc. Troub. Franckford (1846), 145. In a great deale off dett … for their necessary bourde.

1636–46.  Row, Hist. Kirk (1842), Pref. 26. Till I suld see how his burd suld be payit.

1856.  Olmsted, Slave States, 47. Let them find their own board.

  b.  The condition of boarding at another’s house.

a. 1658.  Cleveland, Gen. Poems (1677), 29. Or break up House, like an expensive Lord, That gives his Purse a Sob, and lives at Board.

1632.  Massinger & Field, Fatal Dowry, IV. i. Young ladies appear as if they came from board last week out of the country.

  8.  A table at which a council is held; hence, a meeting of such a council round the table.

1575–6.  Lansdowne MS., 21, in Thynne, Animadv. (1865), Introd. 53. Called before the highe boorde of the counsell.

a. 1674.  Clarendon, Hist. Reb., I. I. (1732), 20/2 (L.). Better vers’d in those abroad, than any other who sat then at that Board.

1702.  Lond. Gaz., No. 3840/1. One of the Clerks of Her Majesty’s Board of Green-Cloth.

1828.  Scott, F. M. Perth, II. 5. Taking a place at the council board.

1848.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 443. The new King … took his place at the head of the board. Ibid., II. 75. His gloomy looks showed how little he was pleased with what had passed at the board.

  b.  Hence: The company of persons who meet at a council-table; the recognized word for a body of persons officially constituted for the transaction or superintendence of some particular business, indicated by the full title, as Board of Control, B. of Trade, B. of Commissioners, B. of Directors, B. of Guardians, Local (Government) Board, Sanitary Board, School Board.

1613.  Shaks., Hen. VIII., I. i. 79. The Honourable Boord of Councell.

1635.  Naunton, Fragm. Reg., in Phœnix (1707), I. 190. In the ordinary course of the Board.

1712.  Steele, Spect., No. 478. ¶ 14. I would propose that there be a board of directors.

1780.  Burke, Sp. Econ. Reform, Wks. 1842, I. 249. We want no instructions from boards of trade, or from any other board.

1796.  (title) Report of the Board of Health, at the first annual Meeting, May 27.

1804.  Hansard’s Parl. Deb., I. 1168. By command of the Master General and Board of Ordnance.

1838.  Dickens, O. Twist, ii. ‘Bow to the board,’ said Bumble. Oliver … seeing no board but the table, fortunately bowed to that.

1848.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., II. 195. The treasurer had been succeeded by a board, of which a Papist was the head.

1863.  H. Cox, Instit., III. ix. 732. It is carried into execution by local Boards.

  9.  Any piece of furniture resembling a table; with various defining words, as dressing board a dresser, sideboard a side table; also, the platform on which tailors sit while sewing, etc.

1400.  Test. Ebor. (1836), I. 260. Unum platyngborde … vj. brade bordes beste in domo.

1601.  F. Tate, Househ. Ord. Edw. II. (1876), 68. Every messe that commeth from the dressing bourd.

1807.  Crabbe, Par. Reg., II. 162. By trade a tailor … again he’d mount the board.

  III.  A shield. [OE. bord²: if orig. ‘border’ or ‘rim.’]

  † 10.  A shield. Obs.

a. 1000.  Elene, 114 (Gr.). Þær wæs borda ʓebrec.

c. 1205.  Lay., 9283. His gold ileired bord.

c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, 5827. He hit hym so hetturly … on the shild, þat he breke þurgh the burd.

1535.  Stewart, Cron. Scot., III. 457. Content he wes … On fit to fecht withoutin ony hors, Doublet alane, withoutin ony bourd.

  IV.  A border, side, coast. [OE. bord²; lost in ME. and replaced by F. bord.]

  11.  The border or side of anything; a hem; an edge; a coast. Obs. exc. in seaboard, sea-coast.

c. 897.  K. Ælfred, Gregory’s Past., Pref. 2 (Sw.). Hu hi … sibbe innan bordes ʓehioldon … and hu mon utan bordes … lare hider on lond sohte.

c. 1340.  Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 159. Spures vnder, Of bryȝt golde vpon silk bordes.

c. 1420.  Pallad. on Husb., IV. 149. In other place a borde of hem [plants] let make.

1513.  Douglas, Æneis, XI. ii. 36. Twa robbis … Of rich purpour and styf burd of gold.

1535.  Stewart, Cron. Scot., I. 369. Out of Denmark be se burd mony myle.

1600.  Dymmok, Ireland (1843), 34. The approaches … should be … carryed to the board of the counterscarp.

1874.  Mahaffy, Soc. Life Greece, viii. 243. To venture down from the hill forts to the sea board.

  V.  A ship’s side. [OE. bord²: reinforced by OF. bord, and perh. by ON. borð, Da. bord.]

  12.  Naut. The side of a ship. (See ABOARD.) Now only in phrases, as within board, without board; over (the) board, over the ship’s side, out of the ship, into the sea; weather-board (see quot.). (See also the following, and cf. LARBOARD, STARBOARD, etc.)

a. 1000.  Cædmon’s Gen., 1354 (Gr.). Ða be-utan beoþ earce bordum.

c. 1205.  Lay., 1518. Ne cume ȝe neauer wiðuten scipes bord.

c. 1325.  E. E. Allit. P., C. 211. Berez me [Jonah] to þe borde & baþeþes me þer-oute.

a. 1400[?].  Morte Arth., 1699. Broghte us … to Bretayne … with-in [s]chippe-burdez.

c. 1420.  Chron. Vilod., 867. Fast by þe shippus bord.

c. 1430.  Syr Gener., 364. Shuld cast hem ouer the ship bord.

1470–85.  Malory, Arthur (1816), II. 328. They came within board.

1513.  Douglas, Æneis, III. x. 21. And within burd hes brocht That faithfull Greik.

c. 1532.  Ld. Berners, Huon, 478. Huon … stode lenynge ouer the shyppe bord beholding the see.

1630.  Wadsworth, Sp. Pilgr., v. 38. They … brought vs from the Prow to the board of the Gally to helpe them in rowing.

1650.  T. Froysell, Gale of Opport. (1652), 31. The Marriners they cast him over Ship-board.

1829.  Marryat, F. Mildmay, x. I … kept … my anger within board.

c. 1850.  Rudim. Navig. (Weale), 160. Without-board, without the ship. Within-board, within the ship.

1867.  Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Weather-board, that side of the ship which is to windward.

  b.  By the board: (down) by the ship’s side, overboard, as To slip by the board: ‘to slip down a ship’s side’ (Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk.). To come, go, etc., by the board: to fall overboard, to go for good and all, to be ‘carried away.’ To try by the board: to try boarding. Also fig.

1630.  J. Taylor (Water P.), Wks., III. 40/1. In this fight their Reare-Admirals Maine Mast was shot by the boord.

1666.  Lond. Gaz., No. 60/3. Our Main-stay, and our Main Top-Mast … came all by the board.

1666.  Pepys, Diary, 11 Feb. The storms … have driven back three or four of them with their masts by the board.

1705.  Lond. Gaz., No. 4098/3. All her Masts came by the board.

1836.  Marryat, Midsh. Easy (1863), 210. Captain Wilson, therefore, resolved to try her by the board.

1856.  Longf., Wreck Hesp., xix. Her rattling shrouds, all sheathed in ice, With the masts, went by the board.

1859.  [J. D. Burn], Autobiog. Beggar Boy, 14. Every instinct and feeling of humanity goes by the board.

1875.  Whitney, Life Lang., vi. 103. A class of grammatical distinctions which have gone by the board.

  c.  On board: on one side, close alongside (of a ship or shore); also as prep., short for on board of. (See also 14.) To lay (a ship) on board: to place one’s own ship alongside of (it) for the purpose of fighting. To run on board (of), to fall on board (of): lit. to run against, fall foul of (a ship); fig. to make an attack, fall, upon (a person or thing). On even board with: exactly alongside with; fig. on even terms with, ‘square’ with.

c. 1505.  Dunbar, Gold. Targe, 55. Hard on burd vnto the blomyt medis … Aryvit scho.

1630.  Brathwait, Eng. Gentl. (1641), 351. Hee hath kept himselfe on even boord with all the world.

1655.  Gurnall, Chr. in Arm., i. (1669), 2/1. His hungry soul for want of better food, falls on board upon the Devil’s chear.

1677.  Lond. Gaz., No. 1202/3. The Glorieux … laid the Arms of Leyden on Board, which took Fire, and was burnt. Ibid. (1707), No. 4380/3. We saw … a cluster of 5 or 6 Ships on board each other.

1720.  De Foe, Capt. Singleton, iii. 40. Keeping the coast close on board.

1797.  Nelson, in A. Duncan, Life (1806), 41. The San Nicholas luffing up, the San Josef fell on board her.

1829.  Marryat, F. Mildmay, iii. A large … frigate ran on board of us.

1860.  Merc. Mar. Mag., VII. 172. It is better to keep the land on board as far as Solitary Isle.

  d.  Board on board, (corruptly) board and board, board by board: side by side, close alongside of each other. [= Fr. bord à bord 14th c. in Littré, also ON. borð við borð.]

c. 1450.  Lonelich, Grail, xxxix. 370. It [a shipe] aproched so ny, Tyl bord on bord they weren.

1614.  Raleigh, Hist. World, V. i. § 6. When they were (as we call it) boord and boord, that is when they brought the Gallies sides together.

1634.  W. Wood, New Eng. Prosp., I. i. Roome for 3 Ships to come in board and board.

1697.  Lond. Gaz., No. 3278/3. A Fight of several hours Board by Board.

1761.  Chron., in Ann. Reg., 64/2. The Ships were board and board three different times, which occasioned great slaughter on both sides.

  † 13.  (poetically in OE.) A ship. Obs.

a. 1000.  Elene, 238 (Gr.). Bord oft onfeng … yða swengas.

a. 1000.  Gnomica, 188 (Gr.). He … druʓað his ar on borde.

c. 1325.  E. E. Allit. P., B. 470. Bryngez þat bryȝt vpon borde.

  14.  On board (beside the technical sense in 12 c) has now, in common use, the meaning: On or in a ship, boat, etc.; into or on to a ship. That this expression is elliptical, is witnessed by the fuller form on ship-board (cf. ME. ‘within schippe burdez’ in 12), and the construction ‘on board of the ship,’ or ‘on board the ship’ (where it is perhaps often supposed that ‘board’ means the deck).

  On board appears to be a later expansion (cf. afoot, on foot) of ABOARD, a-bord, and this to have been taken directly from Fr. à bord, as in aller ou monter à bord, être à bord, short for au bord du vaisseau, in which bord ‘ship’s side’ comes contextually to be equal to ‘ship’ itself. Similar phrases are used in other modern Teut. langs., as Du. aan boord, Ger. an bord, Sw., Da. om skibsbord. Although on borde occurs poetically in OE., and vpon borde in ME., in sense of ‘in, upon ship,’ these appear to have no historical connection with the later a-board, which begins about 1500, and on board, which appears late in the 17th c.

1688.  Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), I. 450. Sir John Narborough … died on ship board.

1705.  Addison, Italy, 6. A Capuchin who was on Board with us.

1768.  Tucker, Lt. Nat., II. 528. The common sailor will not return on board.

c. 1800.  P. Hoare, Song, On board of the Arethusa.

1835.  Marryat, Jac. Faithf., i. He went on shore for my mother, and came on board again. Ibid. (1840), Poor Jack, xxiii. The captain … had his grog on board.

  b.  On board is used as prep. for on board of.

1693.  Lond. Gaz., No. 2847/3. They … put on board her 10 French Men. Ibid. (1711), No. 4887/3. From on Board Sir Edw. Whittaker, off the Lizard.

1720.  De Foe, Capt. Singleton, xvi. 270. Nor would we let any of our men go on board them, or suffer any of their men to come on board us.

1847.  Grote, Greece, II. xlvii. IV. 189. They were placed on board a fleet.

1875.  Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), I. 74. This man Stesilaus has been seen by him on board ship.

  c.  transf. (in U.S.). In or into a railway train, tram-car, omnibus, etc.

1872.  ‘Mark Twain,’ Innoc. Abr., xii. 79. Once on board, the train will not start till your ticket has been examined.

1881.  Daily News, 7 Sept., 5/4 (U. S. Corresp.). The train started at 6.30, having on board Mrs. Garfield and her daughter, with the surgeons and attendants.

1883.  Kate W. Hamilton, in Harper’s Mag., 847/1. She … found herself breathless on board the other train just as it began to move.

  15.  Naut. Sideward direction (in reference to the ship’s course); the course of a ship when tacking. To make boards: to tack. To make short boards: to tack frequently. Also in some fig. phrases, as † To sail on another board: to take another course of conduct. Cf. TACK.

  [Of Fr. origin: cf. Fr. virer de bord to turn the ship’s side in another direction; courir des bords to tack. Cf. STARBOARD and LARBOARD used as directions in reference to a ship’s course.]

1533.  Bellenden, Livy, I. (1822), 73. Seing her husband wes dede, scho began to sail on ane uthir burde.

1535.  Stewart, Cron. Scotland (1858), I. 17. Thai salit … Ay be ane burd fyve dais and fyve nycht.

1596.  Sir F. Vere, Comm., 30. Making still toward them upon one board.

1685.  Cotton, Montaigne, III. 456. To this and that side I make tacks and bords.

1772–84.  Cook, Voy. (1790), IV. 1404. We passed the night in making short boards.

1837.  Marryat, Dog-fiend, xlii. Standing in … to make a long board upon the next tack.

1862.  G. W. Sheldon, in Harper’s Mag. (1884), Jan., 229/1. The tendency was to give her a stern board [i. e., to sail her stern first].

1875.  ‘Stonehenge,’ Brit. Sports, II. VIII. i. § 5. The vessel will do it in two boards if there be room in the channel.

  VI.  In Coal-mining.

  16.  The name given in some colliery districts to each cutting or excavation in the direction of the working in the method called ‘board-and-pillar,’ or ‘post-and-stall’ work; ‘a passage driven across the fibres or grain of the coal.’ Newcastle Mining Terms.

  [Found in beginning of 18th c.: the coal was then dragged from the ‘face’ in sledges over wooden boards or deals laid down as ‘ways.’ It is suggested that board thus came to mean ‘way,’ ‘passage.’ Cf. Boardways Course in 18.]

1708.  Compleat Collier, A yard and quarter wide for a headways … and out of this it is we turn off the boards or other workings for every particular hewer.

1839.  Penny Cycl., XV. 247. A series of broad parallel passages or bords about eight yards apart, communicating with each other by narrower passages or ‘headways.’

1860.  Fordyce, Hist. Coal, etc. 32. The hewers working at the face of the bords or the pillar workings.

1875.  Ure, Dict. Arts, III. 326. Working with pillars and rooms or boards, styled post and stall. (There are ‘narrow-boards,’ ‘travelling-boards,’ ‘stow-boards,’ the ‘mother’s gate or common going board,’ etc.—R. Oliver Heslop, Corbridge.)

  VII.  Comb. and Attrib.

  17.  General comb., chiefly attrib., as (sense 1) board-lining, -work; board-built, adj.; (sense 6) board-end, -head, -knife; (sense 8) board-house, -minister, -officer, -room.

1837.  Hawthorne, Amer. Note-Bks. (1871), I. 46. *Board-built and turf-buttressed hovels.

a. 1652.  Brome, Damoiselle, IV. i. A *Boordsend-King, a pay-all in a Tavern.

1820.  Scott, Abbot, xxiii. Take thy place at the board-end, and refresh thyself after thy journey.

1637.  Rutherford, Lett., civ. (1862), I. 264. I wonder what He meaneth to put such a slave at the *board-head.

a. 1758.  Ramsay, Poems (1844), 82. Sat up at the boord-head.

1772.  Wilson, in Phil. Trans., LXIII. 62. The *Board-house, which is a large building for the use of the *board-officers.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 44. *Boordeknyfe, mensacula.

1530.  Palsgr., 200/1. Borde knyfe, covteav de escuier.

1879.  Jefferies, Wild Life in S. Co., 159. The same *board-lining of the window.

1801.  W. Huntington, Bank of Faith, 30. They were *board-ministers, or ministers belonging to the board.

1836.  Dickens, Sk. Boz, i. A miserable-looking woman is called into the *board-room.

1825.  J. Neal, Bro. Jonathan, I. 8. The snow … driving thro’ every nook and crevice of the *board-work.

  18.  Special comb.: board coal, a kind of coal resembling wood in its markings; board-fellow, a companion at table, a messmate; † board-form, a trapezium; † board-land (see BORD-LAND); board-man, a man who carries advertisement boards, a ‘sandwich man’; board-measure, superficial measure applied to boards; board-money = BOARD-WAGES; board-nail, a spike or large brad; board-rule, a scale for finding the superficial area of a board without calculation; † boardstock, a piece of timber to be sawn into boards; boardway’s course, ‘the direction perpendicular to the cleavage of the coal’ (Coal-trade Terms, Northld. & Durh., 1851). Also BOARD-CLOTH, -SCHOOL, -WAGES.

1760.  Milles, in Phil. Trans., LI. 537. That which they call the wood coal, or *board coal, from the resemblance which the pieces have to the grain of deal boards.

1811.  J. Pinkerton, Petral., I. 596. Straight flat pieces, three or four feet in length, which are called board-coal.

1382.  Wyclif, Judg. xiv. 11. Thei ȝouen to him *bordfelawis thretti.

1741.  Richardson, Pamela (1824), I. 102. Be you once more bed-fellows and board-fellows.

1551.  Recorde, Pathw. Knowl., I. Def., Called of the Grekes trapezia … may be called in englishe *borde formes.

1884.  Cassell’s Fam. Mag., Dec., 32. The announcements were borne by a gang of unhappy *board-men.

1656.  H. Phillips, Purch. Patt. (1676), 142. Draw the like line for *Board measure.

1809.  R. Langford, Introd. Trade, 62. *Board Money, and Small Charges.

1866.  Rogers, Agric. & Prices, I. xx. 498. The spike or *board-nails of the records.

1619.  Sir R. Boyle, in Lismore Papers (1886), I. 217. 240 tymber trees … wherof most is squared and reserved for *boordstocks.

1623.  E. Wynne, in Whitbourne, Newfoundland, 105. Wee got home as many boord-stocks, as afforded vs aboue two hundred boords.