furniture

English Online Dictionary. What means furniture‎? What does furniture mean?

English

Etymology

From Middle French fourniture (“a supply, or the act of furnishing”), from fournir (“to furnish”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈfɜːnɪtʃə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈfɝnɪt͡ʃɚ/

Noun

furniture (usually uncountable, plural furnitures)

1. (now usually uncountable) Large movable item(s), usually in a room, which enhance(s) the room's characteristics, functionally or decoratively.
2. The harness, trappings etc. of a horse, hawk, or other animal.
3. Fittings, such as handles, of a door, coffin, or other wooden item.
4. (obsolete) An accompanying enhancing feature, or features collectively; embellishment, decoration, trimming.
5. (firearms) The stock and forearm of a weapon.
6. (printing, historical) The pieces of wood or metal put around pages of type to make proper margins and fill the spaces between the pages and the chase.
7. (cricket, slang) The stumps.
8. (journalism) Any material on the page other than the body text and pictures of articles; for example, headlines, datelines and dinkuses, lines and symbols (though in earlier use, only non-text elements of page design, such as lines and symbols).
9. (music) A type of mixture organ stop.
10. (archaic) Draped coverings and hangings; bedsheets, tablecloths, tapestries, etc.
11. (obsolete) Clothing with which a person is furnished; apparel, outfit.
12. (obsolete) Arms and armor, equipment of war.
13. (archaic) Equipment for work, apparatus, tools, instruments.
14. (obsolete, in the plural) Condiments of a salad.
15. (obsolete) Stock, supply, stores, provisions.
16. (obsolete) Contents; that with which something is filled or stocked.
17. (bookselling) Impressive-looking books used for filling out the collection of a private library.
18. (obsolete) The action of furnishing or supplying.
19. (obsolete) The condition of being equipped, prepared, or mentally cultivated.

Usage notes

• Before the end of the nineteenth century, the plural furnitures existed in Standard English in both the U.S. and the U.K.; during the twentieth century, however, it ceased to be used by native speakers.
• A single item of furniture, such as a chair or a table, is often called a piece of furniture.
• In many languages "piece of furniture" is one word, and often its plural form is the equivalent of the English "furniture", for example French meuble / meubles.

Hyponyms

• See also Thesaurus:furniture

Meronyms

• drawer
• wardrobe

Derived terms

Related terms

• furnish

Translations

See also

• Category:Furniture

Further reading

• “furniture”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “furniture”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.