camber
UK/ˈkæm.bə//ˈkæm.bɚ/
camber noun: a slight convexity, arching or curvature of a surface of a road, beam, roof, ship's deck etc., so that liquids will flow off the sides.
Noun
camber (uncountable)
- A slight convexity, arching or curvature of a surface of a road, beam, roof, ship's deck etc., so that liquids will flow off the sides.
- From end to end, just behind the houses, ran the broad gravel walk, with its emphatic camber and its metal-edged gutters where a child's ball would come to rest and the first few plane leaves, dusty but still green, were already falling, since the summer had been so hot and rainless all through.2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 1, in The Line of Beauty […], London: Picador, →ISBN
- The track was stony with a grassy camber up the middle.2022, Liam McIlvanney, The Heretic, page 443
- The slope of a curved road created to minimize the effect of centrifugal force.
- Again we were stricken of our palsy, slowed down, re-accelerated, and there, at last, were the few huts of a hamlet, with the lorry, lying at an angle in the road's camber, outside a tea-shop.1952, Norman Lewis, Golden Earth
- Even a small camber one way caused the whole outfit to list alarmingly.2000, Bob Foster, Birdum or Bust!, Henley Beach, SA: Seaview Press, page 173
- Synonyms:
- crossfall
- An upward concavity in the underside of a beam, girder, or lintel; also, a slight upward concavity in a straight arch.
- The alignment on the roll axis of the wheels of a road vehicle, where positive camber signifies that the wheels are closer together at the bottom than the top.
- The curvature of an airfoil.
- A small enclosed dock in which timber for masts (etc.) is kept to weather.
Verb
camber (third-person singular simple present cambers, present participle cambering, simple past and past participle cambered)
Proper noun capitalized: Camber
Camber
- A coastal village and civil parish in Rother district, East Sussex, England (OS grid ref TQ9618).
camber meaning in Tamil, Bengali, Kannada and Malay
camber in Tamil
- கமானம், விற்சாய்வு, அளவீடு, மையவுயாச்சி, மைய உயாச்சி, மெல் வளைவான சிறு கோட்டம்
camber in Bengali
- পৃষ্ঠের সামান্য উত্তল, অবতল বক্রতা
camber in Kannada
- ಇಳಿಜಾರು, ತಗ್ಗು
camber in Malay
- slight convexity of a surface
- kamber
More languagesFewer languages
- camber in Indonesian
- kamber
Synonyms of camber
Forms of camber
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| alternative form (obsolete) | cambre |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | cambers |
| present participle | cambering |
| past participle | cambered |
| past | cambered |
Origin of camber
From Old French cambre (“bent”), from Latin camurum, from camur (“arched”).
Words formed from camber
Phrases with camber
Questions about camber
- What does camber mean?
- Camber means a slight convexity, arching or curvature of a surface of a road, beam, roof, ship's deck etc., so that liquids will flow off the sides.
- What is camber in Tamil?
- Camber in Tamil is கமானம், விற்சாய்வு, அளவீடு. See Camber meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is camber?
- Camber can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce camber?
- Camber is pronounced /ˈkæm.bə/ (UK).
Words near camber in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: camber (page history and authors); Camber (page history and authors); camber (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); camber (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); camber (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-camber.ogg, en-au-camber.ogg.
Cite this entry: “camber.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/camber. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.