WOOD, subst. A solid substance of which the trunks and branches of trees consist.
A dictionary cannot be reckoned complete without explaining obsolete words; and if the terms of the several provincial dialects were likewise given, it would be of great utility. Nor would this occupy much space, because a number of these words need no other explanation than to mark along with them the words which had come in their place, when there happened to be one perfectly synonymous; and in those cases where the same idea could not be expressed in modern language without a periphrasis, it would be of use to explain them distinctly; so that, when a writer found himself at a loss for a term, and was obliged to search for one beyond the bounds of his own language, he might take one of these, if he found it expressive and energetic, in preference to another drawn from a foreign language. This would at least have one good effect; it would render our language more fixed and stable, not to say more accurate and precise, than by borrowing from foreign languages. The following examples may serve to give some idea of the manner of treating this part of the work.