English

Noun

cordwood ‎(countable and uncountable, plural cordwoods)

1. Wood suitable for use as firewood; firewood cut and split into conveniently sized pieces for easy stacking into cords.
   • 1884, Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Chapter 7, page 40,

     The June rise used to be always luck for me; because as soon as that rise begins here comes cordwood floating down, and pieces of log rafts -- sometimes a dozen logs together; so all you have to do is to catch them and sell them to the wood-yards and the sawmill.

   • 1902, Edward Stewart White, The Blazed Trail, McClure, Phillips & Co., Chapter 27,

     The barkeeper drew beer from two pumps immediately in front of him, and rinsed glasses in some sort of a sink under the edge of the bar. The centre of the room was occupied by a tremendous stove capable of burning whole logs of cordwood.

2. Split and cut firewood as an economic commodity.
   • 1884 Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Chapter 20, page 178,

     The price of the paper was two dollars a year, but he took in three subscriptions for half a dollar apiece on condition of them paying him in advance; they were going to pay in cordwood and onions as usual, but he said he had just bought the concern and knocked down the price as low as he could afford it, and was going to run it for cash.

   • 1899 T.G. Steward, A Charleston Love Story, Chapter 1, page 9,

     In his earlier days he had been successful both as a small farmer and as a dealer in cordwood and hoop-poles; and many of his ventures in this line had sailed out of the tortuous rivers of South Jersey to Philadelphia, where the wood and the poles then found ready sale.

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