board

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a flat piece of material designed for a special purpose

   They nailed boards across the windows to prepare for the storm.

2. 2
   noun

   a flat portable surface, usually rectangular, designed for board games

   They got out the board and set up the pieces.

3. 3
   noun

   a committee having supervisory powers

   the board has seven members

4. 4
   verb

   to provide food and lodging for

   We are boarding three people right now.

5. 5
   verb

   to lodge and take meals at

   I board with a family in town during the semester.

6. 6
   verb

   to get on board of trains, buses, ships, aircraft, etc.

   We should hurry up and board the ship.

7. 7
   verb

   to live and take one's meals at or in

   I board in the university dorms.

8. 8
   noun

   A relatively long, wide and thin piece of any material, usually wood or similar, often for use in construction or furniture-making.

   Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke. He was dressed out in broad gaiters and bright tweeds, like an English tourist, and his face might have belonged to Dagon, idol of the Philistines.

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”)…