board

Noun

board (countable and uncountable, plural boards)

2. A relatively long, wide and thin piece of any material, usually wood or similar, often for use in construction or furniture-making.
   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

     Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke. He was dressed out in broad gaiters and bright tweeds, like an English tourist, and his face might have belonged to Dagon, idol of the Philistines.

4. A device (e.g., switchboard) containing electrical switches and other controls and designed to control lights, sound, telephone connections, etc.
6. A flat surface with markings for playing a board game.

   Each player starts the game with four counters on the board.

8. Short for blackboard, whiteboard, chessboard, surfboard, circuit board, message board (on the Internet), bulletin board, etc.
10. A committee that manages the business of an organization, e.g., a board of directors.

    We have to wait to hear back from the board.

12. (uncountable) Regular meals in a place of lodging; the price paid for them.

    board and lodging

    room and board

    His board was served by his landlady, the owner of the boarding house. [meals]

    His board seemed a bit steep, but he accepted it because the house was clean and his fellow lodgers were respectful neighbors. [price for meals]

14. (nautical) The side of a ship.
    • 1697, Virgil, “The Fifth Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

      Now board to board the rival vessels row.

16. (nautical) The distance a sailing vessel runs between tacks when working to windward.
18. (ice hockey, often in the plural) The wall that surrounds an ice hockey rink.
20. (archaic) A long, narrow table, like that used in a medieval dining hall.
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book V”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

      Fruit of all kinds […] / She gathers, tribute large, and on the board / Heaps with unsparing hand.

    • 1890, Algernon Blackwood, Christmas in England, Methodist Magazine Volume 32 pg 481.

      The real beginning of the festivities is on Christmas-eve, when the large parties meet their friends from far and near round the festive board.

    • 2007, J. R. R. Tolkien edited by Christopher Tolkien, The Children of Húrin:

      Túrin took a seat without heed, for he was wayworn, and filled with thought; and by ill-luck he set himself at a board among the elders of the realm, and in that place where Saeros was accustomed to sit.

22. Paper made thick and stiff like a board, for book covers, etc.; pasteboard.

    to bind a book in boards

24. (video games) A level or stage having a particular two-dimensional layout.
    • 2004, Dan Whitehead, Martyn Carroll, Shaun Bebbington, “Future Shocks”, in Your Sinclair, number 94:

      The object of the game is to move the smiley face over the preset board, in doing so removing the green squares and ending up at the exit […]

    • 2015, Hiddenstuff Entertainment, Candy Crush Soda Saga Game Guide, page 23:

      You are able to then change a color candy with any candy around the board, similar to the way you are able to with color bomb candies.

25. (TCGs) The portion of the playing field where creatures or minions can be placed (or played, summoned, etc.).
27. (bridge) A container for holding pre-dealt cards that is used to allow multiple sets of players to play the same cards.

    

28. (Philippines, local government) A provincial assembly or council.

Verb

board (third-person singular simple present boards, present participle boarding, simple past and past participle boarded)

1. (transitive) To step or climb onto or otherwise enter a ship, aircraft, train or other conveyance.

   It is time to board the aircraft.

   • 1862, Benjamin J. Totten, Naval Text-Book, and Dictionary, for the use of the Midshipmen of the U.S. Navy:

     You board an enemy to capture her, and a stranger to receive news or make a communication.

   • 2022 November 2, Paul Bigland, “New trains, old trains, and splendid scenery”, in RAIL, number 969, page 57:

     I have just enough time for a "swifty" in the reopened (but on this day just about to close) '301' bar on Platform 4 before boarding a two-car Northern Class 158 working the 1824 to Leeds.

   Antonyms: alight, disembark

2. (transitive) To provide someone with meals and lodging, usually in exchange for money.

   to board one’s horse at a livery stable

3. (transitive) To receive meals and lodging in exchange for money.
   • February 8, 1712, Charity Frost, The Spectator No. 296 (letter to the editor)

     We are several of us, gentlemen and ladies, who board in the same house,

5. (transitive, nautical) To (at least attempt to) capture an enemy ship by going alongside and grappling her, then invading her with a boarding party.
6. (intransitive) To obtain meals, or meals and lodgings, statedly for compensation
7. (transitive, now rare) To approach (someone); to make advances to, accost.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     Ere long with like againe he boorded mee, / Saying, he now had boulted all the floure […]

8. To cover with boards or boarding.

   to board a house

   • 1782–1785, William Cowper, “(please specify the page)”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson;  […], →OCLC:

     the boarded hovel

9. To hit (someone) with a wooden board.
10. (transitive) To write something on a board, especially a blackboard or whiteboard.

Noun

board (plural boards)

1. (basketball, informal) A rebound.

Declension