See quot. 1858. A gambrel is a crooked piece of wood, on which butchers hang up the carcasses of beasts by the legs: Ray’s ‘English Proverbs,’ ed. 1813, p. 96, in explanation of the saying, “Soon crooks the tree that good gambrel would be.”—Blount has cambren, and the Scottish variant is cammock.
1765. To be sold, a large building with two upright Stories and a Gambrel Roof.—Mass. Gazette, Dec. 19.
1824.
| In a gambrel-roof’d house, by the side of the road, | |
| She dwelt with a heart void of care. | |
The Microscope, Feb. 21: from the Providence Journal. |
1851. Here and there was a house in the then new style, three-storied, with gambrel roof and dormer windows.—S. Judd, ‘Margaret,’ p. 30. (N.E.D.)
1858.
| Know old Cambridge? Hope you do.— | |
| Born there? Don’t say so! I was, too. | |
| (Born in a house with a gambrel-roof,— | |
| Standing still, if you must have proof.— | |
| “Gambrel?—Gambrel?”—Let me beg | |
| You’ll look at a horse’s hinder leg,— | |
| First great angle above the hoof,— | |
| That’s the gambrel; hence gambrel-roof.) | |
Holmes, ‘The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,’ chap. xii. |
1858. Poem on “The Old Gambrel Roof.”—Knick. Mag., lii. 473 (Nov.).
