different between lumber vs whisk

English

Etymology

Exact origin unknown. The earliest recorded reference was to heavy, useless objects such as old, discarded furniture. Perhaps from the verb lumber in reference to meaning "awkward to move". Possibly influenced by Lumbar, an obsolete variant of Lombard, the Italian immigrant class known for being pawnbrokers and money-lenders in early England.

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: l?m?b? IPA^(key): /?l?m.b?/
• (US) enPR: l?m?b?r IPA^(key): /?l?m.b?/
• Rhymes: -?mb?(r)

Noun

lumber (usually uncountable, plural lumbers)

1. (now rare) Old furniture or other items that take up room, or are stored away. [from 16th c.]
   • 1751, Tobias Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, vol. III, ch. 88:

     I was visited by the duke of L—, a friend of my lord, who found me sitting upon a trunk, in a poor little dining-room filled with lumber, and lighted with two bits of tallow-candle, which had been left over night.

2. (figuratively) Useless or cumbrous material. [from 17th c.]
   • 1711, Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism:

     The bookful blockhead ignorantly read, / With loads of learned lumber in his head, […]

3. (obsolete) A pawnbroker's shop, or room for storing articles put in pawn; hence, a pledge, or pawn. [17th–18th c.]
   • a. 1746, Lady Grisell Baillie Murray, Memoirs of the Lives and Characters of the Right Honourable George Baillie

     They put all the little plate they had […] in the lumber, which is pawning it, till the ships came.

4. (Canada, US) Wood sawn into planks or otherwise prepared for sale or use, especially as a building material. [from 17th c.]
   • 1782, H. de Crèvecoeur, Letters from an American Farmer:

     Here they live by fishing on the most plentiful coasts in the world; there they fell trees, by the sides of large rivers, for masts and lumber […] .

   • 1883, Chester A. Arthur, Third State of the Union Address, 4 December:

     The resources of Alaska, especially in fur, mines, and lumber, are considerable in extent and capable of large development, while its geographical situation is one of political and commercial importance.;

5. (baseball, slang) A baseball bat.

Synonyms

• timber
• wood

Translations

Verb

lumber (third-person singular simple present lumbers, present participle lumbering, simple past and past participle lumbered)

1. (intransitive) To move clumsily and heavily; to move slowly.
   • 1816, Sir Walter Scott, The Antiquary

     ...he was only apprized of the arrival of the Monkbarns division by the gee-hupping of the postilion, as the post-chaise lumbered up behind him.

   • 2002, Russell Allen, "Incantations of the Apprentice", on Symphony X, The Odyssey.

2. (transitive, with with) To load down with things, to fill, to encumber, to impose an unwanted burden on
3. To heap together in disorder.
   • 1677, Thomas Rymer, The Tragedies of the Last Age Consider'd

     so much stuff lumberd together

4. To fill or encumber with lumber.

Related terms

• lumbering
• lumberingness

Translations

Anagrams

• Blumer, Bulmer, Rumble, rumble, umbrel

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /(h)w?sk/
• Rhymes: -?sk

Etymology 1

Middle English [Term?], from Old Norse visk, from Proto-Germanic *wiskaz, *wisk? (“bundle of hay, wisp”), from Proto-Indo-European *weys-. Doublet of verge.

Cognate with Danish visk, Dutch wis, German Wisch, Latin virga (“rod, switch”), viscus (“entrails”), Lithuanian vizgéti (“to tremble”), Czech vechet (“wisp of straw”), Sanskrit ????? (ve?ka, “noose”). Compare also Old English wiscian (“to plait”), granwisc (“awn”).

Noun

whisk (plural whisks)

1. A quick, light sweeping motion.

   With a quick whisk, she swept the cat from the pantry with her broom.

2. A kitchen utensil, now usually made from stiff wire loops fixed to a handle (and formerly of twigs), used for whipping (or a mechanical device with the same function).

   He used a whisk to whip up a light and airy souffle.

3. A bunch of twigs or hair etc, used as a brush.

   Peter dipped the whisk in lather and applied it to his face, so he could start shaving.

4. A small handheld broom with a small (or no) handle.

   I used a whisk to sweep the counter, then a push-broom for the floor.

5. A plane used by coopers for evening chines.
6. A kind of cape, forming part of a woman's dress.

   • My wife in her new lace whiske.

7. (archaic) An impertinent fellow.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Halliwell to this entry?)

Hyponyms

• eggwhisk

Translations

Verb

whisk (third-person singular simple present whisks, present participle whisking, simple past and past participle whisked)

1. (transitive) To move something with quick light sweeping motions.

   • He that walks in gray, whisking his riding Page.

2. (transitive) In cooking, to whip e.g. eggs or cream.

3. (transitive) To move something rapidly and with no warning.
   • July 3, 1769, Horace Walpole, letter to the Earl of Strafford

     I beg she would not impale worms, nor whisk carp out of one element into another.

4. (intransitive) To move lightly and nimbly.

Translations

References

Etymology 2

So called from the rapid action of sweeping the cards off the table after a trick has been won.

Noun

whisk (uncountable)

1. (obsolete) The card game whist.
   • 1621, John Taylor, Taylor's Motto

     Trump, noddy, whisk, hole […]