LIMBER  , an homonymous word, having three meanings . (1) A two-wheeled

carriage forming a detachable part of the equipment of all guns on travelling carriages and having on it a framework to contain ammunition boxes, and, in most cases, seats for two or three gunners . The French equivalent is avant-train, the Ger . Protz (see ARTILLERY and ORDNANCE) . (2) An adjective meaning pliant or flexible and so used with reference to a person's mental or bodily qualities, quick, nimble, adroit . (3) A nautical term for the holes cut in the flooring in a ship above the keelson, to allow water to drain to the pumps . The etymology of these words is obscure . According to the New English Dictionary the origin of (I) is to be found in the Fr. limoniere, a derivative of Limon, the shaft of a vehicle, a meaning which appears in English from the 15th century but is now obsolete, except apparently among the miners of the north of England . The earlier English forms of the word are lymor or limrner . Skeat suggests that (2) is connected with " limp," which he refers to a Teutonic base lap-. meaning to hang down . The New English Dictionarypoints out that while " limp " does not occur till the beginning of the 18th century, " limber " in this sense is found as early as the 16th . In Thomas Cooper's (1517 ?–1594) Thesaurus Linguae Romanae et Britannicae (1565), it appears as the English equivalent of the Latin lentus .