timbery

English

Etymology

From timber +‎ -y.

Adjective

timbery (comparative more timbery, superlative most timbery)

1. Resembling or consisting of timber.

   Synonyms: timberish, timberlike

   • 1868, William Barnes, “Hill and Dell”, in Poems of Rural Life in Common English, London: Macmillan and Co., pages 159–160:

     I think I could hardly like his place as well / As my own shelter'd home in the timbery dell, / Where rooks come to build in the high-swaying boughs, / And broadheaded oaks yield a shade for the cows;

   • 1957, Simon Kent [pseudonym; Max Catto], Ferry to Hongkong, London: Hutchinson, page 119:

     During the whole of the previous night Clarry heard her creaking with poignant, uneasy awareness; sleeping on her deck, he had gained a smattering of her timbery language. That night, particularly, it kept him awake as he listened to her.

   • 1960, Rupert Croft-Cooke, The Altar in the Loft, London: Putnam, pages 87–88:

     We entered and were met by the cool musty timbery smell of so many old English churches and sat in a high carved box pew to examine the chancel from the nave.

   • 1999, Máighréad Medbh, Tenant, Cliffs of Moher, Ireland: Salmon Poetry, →ISBN, page 24:

     She hunches over as if drawn by her spattered cheeks, crawls into the pallet, pulls up the blanket and wraps herself in it, her stomach tightened, her feet cold, wishing and wishing that he'll be home soon, please God, soon, safe, with his great coat to put over them and his timbery arm to lay across her.

   • 2006, Herbert R. Coursen, Brute Neighbors, page 57:

     Like the narrator, Sam sank into the recesses of Usher's spirit, his senses heightened by the sounds around him—the fingernail of wind against the slate, the rattle of the leaded glass, the timbery shift of the house around him.

   • 2008 October 27, William Pym, “Something About Mary”, in Artforum‎^[1], New York, N.Y.: Artforum Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-05-27:

     There was weird energy in the air from the start—a timbery smell, half autumnal, half noxious, wafted over from a fiercely burning building one block away on Elizabeth Street, and the glass fourth wall of the downstairs gallery put a bizarre zoolike frisson on proceedings by dividing drinking observers from the abstemious ones up close to the art. But Heilmann set an easy, mellow tone effortlessly and from the front.

   • 2021 April 19, Mike Brooks, “Anaconda HE-4 Hydra Elite review”, in Guitar World‎^[2], New York, N.Y.: Future US, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-01-30:

     The neck attachment is solid, with a five-bolt arrangement, and the roasted flame maple neck has been afforded an oil finish, giving the bass a timbery, organic feel.

2. (figuratively) Deep and resonant.
   • 1958, Al Dewlen, The Bone Pickers, New York, N.Y., Toronto, O.N., London: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., page 133:

     When she remembered, The Old Place seemed to echo still with Papa's drunken, timbery shout, "When I speak to you, then jump, yu' little snotboxes! Else I'll slap the dogwater out of you!"

   • 1988, Graham Jenkins, Barry Turner, Richard Burton, My Brother, London: Michael Joseph Ltd, →ISBN, page 226:

     The sheer poetry of the lyrics, the best element in what was acknowledged as a slight and sentimental story, were perfectly suited to the timbery voice of the mature Burton. He had them crying in the aisles.

   • 2018, Virna DePaul, Bad Boy M. D.:

     I reached for the door handle to make my escape, but froze when he spoke, his voice so male and timbery and deep it made me shudder.

References

• “timbery”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “timbery”, in Collins English Dictionary.
• “timbery, adj.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.