scantling
Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
scantling/ˈskantlɪŋ/
▶noun
- 1 a timber beam of small cross section.
■ the size to which a piece of timber or stone is measured and cut.
- 2 (often scantlings) a set of standard dimensions for parts of a structure, especially in shipbuilding.
- 3 archaic a specimen, sample, or small amount.
– origin C16: alt. of obs. scantillon (from OFr. escantillon ‘sample’), by assoc. with the suffix -ling.
'scantling' also found in these Oxford entries:
