two by four

Speech parts

1. two by four - Noun

2. two by four - Adjective

Meaning

(chiefly Canada, US) A length of sawn wood of cross section approximately 2 inches by 4 inches, most often employed as structural framing lumber (dimension or dimensional lumber).

(chiefly Canada, US, dated) A small, modest building.

Alternative form of two-by-four (“kind of pornographic comic book”)

measuring two inches by four inches

(by extension) small or cramped

(construction) A length of lumber having a cross section of two inches by four inches, or in the case of dimensional lumber three and a half inches by one and a half inches.

(slang) Synonym of Tijuana Bible (“kind of pornographic comic book”)

Alternative names

two-by-four

Synonyms

Examples

Add a two-by-four joist hanger to the exact center of your ledger board. Source: Internet

In time—partly due to Nikita Khrushchev’s 1956 speech enumerating Stalin’s sins (some, not all)—the undismissible facts of what that regime had actually done hit those useful idiots like a two-by-four to the head. Source: Internet

You can use a two-by-four, use a muffler, you can use anything as long as you’ve got that string vibrating.” Source: Internet

Two decades of climbing have made me stiff in ways that only a two-by-four could understand. Source: Internet

You can’t halfway change opinions, you have to hit them in the face with a two-by-four.” Source: Internet

Spend enough time here, and the phrase two-by-four comes up repeatedly. Source: Internet

Close letter words and terms