puncheon

Noun

puncheon (plural puncheons)

1. A figured stamp, die, or punch, used by goldsmiths, cutlers, etc.
2. A short, upright piece of timber in framing; a short post; an intermediate stud.
   • he chose to regard [his father] with a lowering and suspicious mien, unless it were in the dead hours of the night, when he developed a morbid craving to be trotted back and forth and up and down the puncheon floor [...].1891, Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country, Nebraska, published 2005, page 7
3. A piece of roughly dressed timber with one face finished flat (by either hewing or sawing).
4. A split log or heavy slab of timber with the face smoothed, used especially for flooring but also for log cabin walls, piers, or plank roads.
5. A walkway or short, low footbridge over wet ground constructed with such timbers, made by laying one or more planks or dressed timbers over sills set directly on the ground.

   Synonyms:

   duck boards, bog boards, bog bridge

6. A short low bridge of similar construction.

   Synonyms:

   puncheon bridge

7. A cask of a certain size; its volume used as a measure of capacity varying from 72 to 120 gallons.
   • Once in the Grenada islands, when I and above eight others were pulling a large boat with two puncheons of water in it, a surf struck us, and drove the boat and all in it about half a stone's throw, among some trees, and above the high water mark.1789, Olaudah Equiano, chapter 6, in The Interesting Narrative, volume I
   • Again, by 28 Hen. VIII, cap. 14, it is re-enacted that the tun of wine should contain 252 gallons, a butt of Malmsey 126 gallons, a pipe 126 gallons, a tercian or puncheon 84 gallons, a hogshead 63 gallons, a tierce 41 gallons, a barrel 31.5 gallons, a rundlet 18.5 gallons.1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, page 205

   Synonyms:

   tertian, tercian