Noun
A person who builds and repairs houses, especially wooden houses. Particularly, in eighteenth-century colonial America, a craftsman who cut timber (like a lumberjack) in the quantity required for the construction of a house, then sawed it into planks, and finally jointed and assembled them (like a carpenter).
- Examples
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The north and west corners are indeed sometimes penetrated by the rain and require a little attention from the housewright to remedy the evil.
The names of the colonial craftsmen had changed. The joiner and the turner and the housewright had become the cabinet-maker, the chair-maker, and the carpenter.
More examples (1)
John Johnson resided in Woburn, Mass., and was by occupation a housewright or carpenter and owned a saw-mill in Woburn.