cordwood

plural cordwoods

1. countableuncountableWood suitable for use as firewood; firewood cut and split into conveniently sized pieces for easy stacking into cords.

   The barkeeper drew beer from two pumps immediately in front of him, and rinsed glasses in some sort of a sink under the edge of the bar. The centre of the room was occupied by a tremendous stove capable of burning whole logs of cordwood.

   1902, Edward Stewart White, chapter 27, in The Blazed Trail, McClure, Phillips & Co.

   1 more example

   The June rise used to be always luck for me; because as soon as that rise begins here comes cordwood floating down, and pieces of log rafts -- sometimes a dozen logs together; so all you have to do is to catch them and sell them to the wood-yards and the sawmill.

   1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], “Chapter 7”, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) […], London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC, page 40

2. countableuncountableSplit and cut wood as an economic commodity.

   In addition to being fuel, cordwood can also be used as a fairly pretty building material.

   2 more examples

   The price of the paper was two dollars a year, but he took in three subscriptions for half a dollar apiece on condition of them paying him in advance; they were going to pay in cordwood and onions as usual, but he said he had just bought the concern and knocked down the price as low as he could afford it, and was going to run it for cash.

   1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], “Chapter 20”, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) […], London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC, page 178

   In his earlier days he had been successful both as a small farmer and as a dealer in cordwood and hoop-poles; and many of his ventures in this line had sailed out of the tortuous rivers of South Jersey to Philadelphia, where the wood and the poles then found ready sale.

   1899, T.G. Steward, chapter 1, in A Charleston Love Story, page 9