dragon-piece

A short, horizontal piece of timber which bisects the angle formed by the wall plate at the corner of a wood-frame building; one end serves to receive and support the foot of a hip rafter; the other end is supported by a dragon tie.

Short length of horizontal timber (really a shortened dragon-beam) set diagonally at an angle, one end on the junction of two adjacent wall-plates and the other on a dragon-tie, to support the foot of a hip-rafter.