TWO-BY-FOUR • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Two-by-four

... some splendid pine boards, a number of two-by-four joists, plenty of odds and ends of railing, posts, moulding, and other trim that would make a boy delight ...

— The Blue Birds' Winter Nest • Lillian Elizabeth Roy

... torrent gets away from him! He fails, you say. Yet is he weaker after that herculean task than the other chap who dammed up his stream of tendency with the side of his boot? He publicly goes under,—yes! But may he not still be finer than his two-by-four brother whose temperament ran only from the ice-box to family prayers and back to the ice-box? I want to tell you," he concluded in the same low, even voice, "that in the Big Summing Up, the Celestial Clearing ...

— Sunlight Patch • Credo Fitch Harris