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—corder, n. —cordlike, adj./kawrd/, n.1. a string or thin rope made of several strands braided, twisted, or woven together.2. Elect. a small, flexible, insulated cable.3. a ribbed fabric, esp. corduroy.4. a cordlike rib on the surface of cloth.5. any influence that binds or restrains: cord of marriage.6. Anat. a cordlike structure: the spinal cord; umbilical cord.7. a unit of volume used chiefly for fuel wood, now generally equal to 128 cu. ft. (3.6 cu. m), usually specified as 8 ft. long, 4 ft. wide, and 4 ft. high (2.4 m × 1.2 m × 1.2 m). Abbr.: cd, cd.8. a hangman's rope.v.t.9. to bind or fasten with a cord or cords.10. to pile or stack up (wood) in cords.11. to furnish with a cord.[1250-1300; ME coord(e) < AF, OF corde < L chorda < Gk chordé gut; confused in part of its history with CHORD1]
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unit of volume for measuring stacked firewood. A cord is generally equivalent to a stack 4 × 4 × 8 feet (128 cubic feet), and its principal subdivision is the cord foot, which measures 4 × 4 × 1 feet. A standard cord consists of sticks or pieces 4 feet long stacked in a 4 × 8-foot rick. A short cord is a 4 × 8-foot rick of pieces shorter than 4 feet, and a long cord is a similar rick of pieces longer than 4 feet. A face cord is a 4 × 8-foot stack of pieces 1 foot long. The cord was originally devised in order to measure firewood and was so named because a line, string, or cord was used to tie the wood into a bundle.The useful amount of wood a cord actually contains varies greatly, depending upon such factors as the type of wood, the size and straightness of the pieces, and the amount of bark present. A tree with a usable height of 40 feet and a circumference of 6.25 feet will contain about one cord of wood.* * *
Universalium. 2010.
