mortise

• mortice

From Middle English morteys, from Old French mortaise, from Arabic مُرْتَزّ (murtazz), from اِرْتَزَّ (irtazza).

• enPR: môrtĭs, môrtəs, IPA^(key): /ˈmɔː(ɹ).tɪs/, /ˈmɔː(ɹ).təs/

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• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)təs

mortise (plural mortises)

1. (woodworking) A hole that is made to receive a tenon so as to form a joint. [from 14th c.]

   Coordinate terms: rabbet, rebate, tenon

   • 2016 September 6, A Little Book of Woodworking Joints - Including Dovetailing, Mortise-and-Tenon and Mitred Joints, 2nd edition (paperback), Read Books Limited, →ISBN:

     If there is much gauging for the same size mortise and tenon to be done, and if a mortise gauge is not handy, a simple improvised gauge for the purpose can easily be made with two pieces of wood and four or five steel sprigs…

   • 1918, Herman Frederick Rusch, Shop Work, Joinery-cabinet-making-carpentry, Chicago, Illinois, United States: University of Chicago Press, page 56:

     A keyed mortise-and-tenon joint is constructed the same as a doweled mortise and tenon joint except that the tenon projects far enough through the mortise to admit the insertion of a tapering key which draws the mortised piece firmly against the shoulder of the tenon.

2. Stability; power of adhesion.

mortise (third-person singular simple present mortises, present participle mortising, simple past and past participle mortised)

1. (transitive, woodworking) To cut a mortise in.
   • 1918, Herman Frederick Rusch, Shop Work, Joinery-cabinet-making-carpentry, Chicago, Illinois, United States: University of Chicago Press, page 56:

     A keyed mortise-and-tenon joint is constructed the same as a doweled mortise and tenon joint except that the tenon projects far enough through the mortise to admit the insertion of a tapering key which draws the mortised piece firmly against the shoulder of the tenon.

2. (transitive, woodworking) To join by a mortise and tenon.
3. (typography) To adjust the horizontal space between selected pairs of letters; to kern.

• erotism, moister, stormie, trisome