Also GAMBER. [a. F. cambre, f. cambrer: see next. Cf. CAMBREL.]
1. The condition of being slightly arched or convex above. Also concr. a flattened arch.
1618. [see Camber-keeled in 4].
1823. P. Nicholson, Pract. Build., 220. Camber … the convexity of a beam upon the upper edge, in order to prevent its becoming straight or concave by its own weight, or by the burden it may have to sustain, in course of time. Ibid., 582. Camber; an arch on the top of an aperture, or on the top of a beam; whence Camber-windows, &c.
1876. Gwilt, Archit., 437. If the required rise or camber [in a riveted girder] equals e in the middle in inches.
1881. Times, 11 April, 10/5. Boatbuilders insist on giving ‘camber’—that is, tripping up the head and stern and making the midship of the keel deeper than the extremities.
2. A piece of timber so bent; a camber-beam.
1677. Moxon, Mech. Exerc. (1703), 158. Camber, a piece of Timber cut Arching.
c. 1850. Rudim. Navig. (Weale), 102.
3. ‘The part of a dockyard where cambering is performed, and timber kept. Also, a small dock in the royal yards, for the convenience of loading and discharging timber’ (Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk.).
1885. Lady Brassey, The Trades, 403. Just outside the camber, Staff-Commander Clapp met us in the dockyard steam-launch.
4. Comb., as camber-beam, -slip (see quots.); † camber-bored, camber-keeled (also -keel), adjs. Camber-nose, ‘an aquiline nose’ (Halliwell, who cites ‘Junius’).
1721. Bailey, *Camber-beam … is a Beam cut hollow or arching in the middle.
1823. P. Nicholson, Pract. Build., 129.
1626. Capt. Smith, Accid. Yng. Sea-men, 32. To know whether she be equally bored, *camber, taper, or belbored.
a. 1618. Raleigh, Royal Navy, 34. It is a great weakening to a ship to have so much weight … at both the ends, and nothing in the Mid-Ship, which causeth them to warpe, and (in the Sea-phrase, and with Marriners) is tearmed *Camberkeeld.
a. 1642. Sir W. Monson, Naval Tracts, iii. (1703), 350/1. It will make the Ship Camberkeel.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Camber-keeled, keel slightly arched upwards in the middle of the length, but not actually hogged.
1823. P. Nicholson, Pract. Build., 388. The *Camber-slip is a piece of board of any length or breadth, made convex on one or both edges, and generally something less than an inch in thickness; it is made use of as a rule…. When the bricklayer has drawn his arch, he gives the camber-slip to the carpenter.
