furring

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Trimming or lining made of fur.
2. n. A furlike coating, as on the tongue.
3. n. The preparation of a wall, ceiling, or floor with strips of wood or metal to provide a level substratum for plaster, flooring, or another surface or to create an air space.
4. n. Strips of material used in this process.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. Furs; peltry; trimmings of fur.
2. n. A deposit resembling fur, as of scale in a steam-boiler or of epithelium on the tongue.
3. n. In carpentry: The nailing on of thin strips of board, as to joists and rafters, in order to bring them to a level to form an even surface, or in other positions for various purposes.
4. n. plural The strips thus nailed on.
5. n. Strips fastened to a solid wall of a house for nailing laths on, and to provide an air-space between the wall and plastering.

Wiktionary

1. v. present participle of fur.
2. n. Parts of clothing made from fur.
3. n. A coating that resembles fur.
4. n. A strip of material used to prepare a wall for plastering.
5. n. shipbuilding double planking of a ship's side

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The leveling of a surface, or the preparing of an air space, by means of strips of board or of larger pieces. See fur, v. t., 3.
2. n. The strips thus laid on.
3. n. (Shipbuilding) Double planking of a ship's side.
4. n. A deposit from water, as on the inside of a boiler; also, the operation of cleaning away this deposit.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a furlike coating of matter as on the tongue
2. n. strip used to give a level surface for attaching wallboard