1. † a. A piece of work in wood; an article made of wood, or such articles collectively. Obs.
1650. Bury Wills (Camden), 226. I give vnto my sonne Edmund Bacon all my plate,… hangings, wood worke, houshold stuffe, and furniture.
1681. Grew, Musæum, II. I. ii. 192. With these, all the turn’d Wood-Works in India and China are wrought and burnished.
1714. Fr. Bk. of Rates, 57. Wood-works, such as Pater-Nosters, Button-Molds, Toys, &c.
c. 1792. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), IX. 342/2. The acknowledged skill of her ancient artizans in wood-works.
b. (without pl.) Work in wood; esp. those parts or details of a manufactured object or artificial structure that are made of wood; the wooden part of something.
1684. T. Burnet, Th. Earth, I. 205. If we could suppose this mill to have a power … of repairing all the parts that were worn away, whether of the wood-work or of the stone.
1725. Fam. Dict., s.v. Plough, This depends much upon the Truth of the Iron Work, and therefore it is best the Plough should rather be accommodated to the Irons,… the Wood-work being easily alter’d.
1837. Luxmore, in Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl., I. 6/1. A groin is a frame of wood-work, constructed across a beach, between high and low water, [etc.].
1852. Thackeray, Esmond, III. vii. That long cupboard over the woodwork of the mantelpiece.
1880. McCarthy, Own Times, III. xxxviii. 178. Some of the woodwork of the benches was … torn from its place.
† 2. A grove or plantation artificially laid out.
1712. J. James, trans. Le Blond’s Gardening, 28. A large Wood-work cut into a Star, with a circular Alley.
3. a. Work done at cutting wood. nonce-use.
a. 1861. T. Winthrop, Life in Open Air, xii. (1863), 94. We … chopped at the woods for fuel. Speaking for myself, I should say that our wood-work was ill done.
b. Work done in wood, as carpentry.
1913. Board Educ. Rep. Pract. Work Secondary Sch., 84. Syllabus of wood-work for country or small isolated Schools.
So Woodworker, (a) a worker in wood, one who makes things of wood; (b) a machine for working in wood (= JOINER sb. 3); Woodworking, the action of working in wood, the manufacture of wooden articles (also attrib.); † Woodworkman = woodworker (a).
1659. in Marshall, Edwinstow Reg. (1891), 32. Geo. Wightman … a woodworkman.
1872. J. Richards (title), A Treatise on the construction and operation of Wood-working Machines.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 418/1. Cabinet-file, a smooth, single-cut file, used in wood-working. Ibid., 2813/2. Wood-worker, a machine-tool having various attachments and adjustments for different kinds of work.
1890. W. J. Gordon, Foundry, 71. We stroll through the woodworking-shops, where nothing is done by hand that can be done by machine.
1892. Labour Commission, Gloss., s.v., In the coach-making trade wood workers consist of wheel-makers, body-makers…, and carriage-makers.
