carpenter

1 of 2

noun

car·​pen·​ter ˈkär-pən-tər 

ˈkär-pᵊm-tər

: a worker who builds or repairs wooden structures or their structural parts

carpenter

2 of 2

verb

carpentered; carpentering ˈkär-pən-t(ə-)riŋ 

intransitive verb

: to follow the trade of a carpenter

carpentered when he was young

transitive verb

1

: to make by or as if by carpentry

2

: to put together often in a mechanical manner

carpentered many television scripts

Examples of carpenter in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

Born in Chicago to a carpenter father and a mother who suffered from mental illness, Jones developed a love of music early on and took up the piano. —Lisa Respers France, CNN, 4 Nov. 2024

Photo: Brown Harris Stevens Details: 36 and its neighbors on each side were built in the 1850s for James D. Sherwood, an investor who got his start as a local carpenter. —Adriane Quinlan, Curbed, 24 Oct. 2024

Verb

Noma’s dining room, by contrast, is meticulously carpentered together, from the peaked ceiling to the bare floor, out of sanded oak and Douglas fir. —Pete Wells, New York Times, 24 Apr. 2018

The drama is something that seems to be leaking from the very forms so elaborately carpentered to contain it. —Jesse Green, New York Times, 8 June 2017

Word History

Etymology

Noun

Middle English, from Anglo-French carpenter, charpenter, from Latin carpentarius carriage maker, from carpentum carriage, of Celtic origin; akin to Old Irish carpat chariot, carr vehicle — more at car

First Known Use

Noun

14th century, in the meaning defined above

Verb

circa 1815, in the meaning defined at intransitive sense

Phrases Containing carpenter

• carpenter ant
• carpenter bee

Kids Definition

carpenter

noun

car·​pen·​ter

ˈkär-pən-tər,

ˈkärp-ᵊm-tər

: a worker who builds or repairs wooden structures

carpenter verb