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plywood

plywood

43 3.2
Sheets of wood made by gluing thin layers with each layer at right angles
  • noun
  • /ˈplaɪˌwʊd/
translation icon : contrachapado
  • Araceli had insisted that the pool could be covered with thick sheets of plywood and anchored somehow.
  • plywood sheets
  • plywood panels
  • a plywood board

This is a lovely piece of plywood from both sides, from the end.

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Examples

  • Here you see a makeshift barrier built out of large plywood boards.

  • Or you can stand it up like this and slide in a piece of plywood to make a shelf.

  • The last piece of plywood goes on that front door.

  • And we actually put plywood down over almost the entire attic.

  • "Actually, all he had done was to nail a sheet of plywood over the bad part."

    Fiction book (1991)
  • Outside, behind the building, there are six large plywood bins used to study composting of dead animals.

    Academic text (1998)
  • Plywood is only slightly thicker than the human skull.

  • Nearly all the paint had peeled off it, and plywood was nailed over the windows.

    Fiction book (1993)
  • Because the plywood has been sliced into thin pieces that are laminated cross grain.

  • We decided to build a shelf using plywood because it is both strong and lightweight.

Synonyms

plyboard
vsplywood
  • UK
5.0

A strong board with thin layers of wood glued together used for building and furniture

focuses on alternating grain and right angle layer arrangement in making the material

How Strong

hardwood
  • Specialized
52 3.5
timber
47 1.6
plyboard
  • UK
5.0
plywood
43 3.2

Surface Forms

plywood singular
plywoods plural

Morphology

plywood = ply + wood (transparent) = ply + wood

The meaning is directly the combination of 'ply' (a layer) + 'wood' (material): wood made of layers.

Etymology

Plywood comes from ply, which means 'layer', plus wood. Think of 'two-ply' tissues: plywood is many thin layers ('plies') of wood glued together, which is why it is strong.