[app. a. F. cambre-r ‘to arch slightly’ (16th c. in Littré), a semi-popular repr. of L. camerāre to vault (the natural repr. being chambrer), f. camera vault.]
1. intr. To be or become slightly arched or curved so that the center is higher than the ends.
1627. Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., ii. 6. The Decke doth camber or lie compassing.
1757. Robertson, in Phil. Trans., L. 288. Now it so happened, thro’ the great weight of the head and stern, that the ship cambered very much.
2. trans. To bend (a beam, etc.) upwards in the middle; to arch slightly.
1852. P. Nicholson, Encycl. Archit., I. 74. In all these instances the difficulty may be obviated by cambering the timber upwards.
1876. Gwilt, Archit., 437. It is usual to camber a riveted girder, so that on receiving the permanent load it may become nearly horizontal.
1882. Nature, XXV. 247. At the centre of the span, where the bottom member has been cambered upwards to a height of 150 feet for navigation purposes.
Hence Cambered ppl. a., Cambering vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
1627. Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., ii. 6. A cambered Decke.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), Cambered Deck, the deck … of a ship is said to be cambered, or to lie cambering, when it is higher in the middle of the ship’s length, and droops toward the stem and stern.
1878. Bartley, trans. Topinard’s Anthrop., II. vi. 340. With head erect and cambered loins.
1757. Robertson, in Phil. Trans., L. 292. The resistance of the parts bent by the cambering.
