Definition of "puncheon" []

• A short wooden upright used in structural framing. (noun)
• A piece of broad, heavy, roughly dressed timber with one face finished flat. (noun)
• A punching, perforating, or stamping tool, especially one used by a goldsmith. (noun)
• A cask with a capacity of from 72 to 120 gallons (273 to 454 liters). (noun)
• The amount of liquid contained in a puncheon. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Under the window was a wide bench made of a half log, commonly called a puncheon bench, and the flooring was likewise of puncheons, that is, split logs with the flat side smoothed down."
• "1 A puncheon was the flat surface of a split log, smoothed with an ax and pinned to the joists to make the floors of the rude cabins constructed before sawmills were introduced."
• "Stumped toes in summer and cracked heels in winter were always in evidence with pupils during my school days, when the country child had a log cabin for a school room and "puncheon" benches for seats, and the farmer boys and girls of the rural neighborhood wore coarse home-fashioned clothes spun and woven in looms at home."