▪ I. clapboard, n.
(ˈklæpbɔəd, ˈklæbɒd)
Also 7 clabord, clawboard.
[A partially englished form of clapholt, with board for LG. holt wood.]
1. orig. A smaller size of split oak, imported from north Germany, and used by coopers for making barrel-staves; in later times also for wainscoting. App. now obsolete, except as a traditional term in the Customs schedules: quot. 1833 gives an interpretation of it for fiscal purposes.
| c 1520 Mem. Ripon (Surtees) III. 200 Item, Johanni Malthows et ijbus sociis ejus..et servienti dominæ Musgraff cum serviente W{supi} Coke cum v plaustratis le wayne scott et clap bordes de Burghbrig ad Ripon' 5s. 10d. 1598 Stow Surv. xvi. (1603) 139 Those Boordes not exceding the length of a Clapboord. 1623 E. Wynne in Whitbourne Newfoundland 111 We stand in need of another brewing Copper, some Clap-boords, more Iron and Steele. 1665 Earl of Sandwich Let. in Pepys Corresp. 275 ‘Fountaine of Schedam’ a busse laden with clawboards. 1721–1800 Bailey, Clap-board, a Board cut ready to make Casks, etc. 1725 Bradley, Fam. Dict. s.v. Oak, Clapboards for Wainscot. 1772 Jacob Law Dict. s.v., For every six ton of beer exported, the same cask, or as good, or two hundred of clapboards is to be imported. 1833 Act 3 & 4 William IV, c. 56 Wood Staves above 3 Inches in Thickness, or above 7 Inches in Breadth, and not exceeding 63 Inches in Length, shall be deemed Clap Boards, and be charged with Duty accordingly. 1840–56 S. C. Brees Gloss. Civil Engin., Clap-board, a species of oak imported from Norway, and very similar to Dutch wainscot. |
b. In U.S. A board, thinner at one edge, used to cover the sides or roofs of houses, each board being made to overlap that below it; a weather-board.
| 1641 Records Salisbury, Mass. in Coffin Newberry (1845) 34 No man shall sell clabords of five foot in length for more than three shillings per hundred..and if they cleave by the hundred they shall not exceed sixpence per hundred; noe man shall sell ani sawn bord for more than five shillings per hundred. 1825 J. Neal Bro. Jonathan III. 380 The strong Easterly breeze..which had stripped all the surviving frames..of clapboard and roof. 1860 O. W. Holmes Prof. Breakf.-t. vii. 204 The moss grows on the rotten shingles of the roof, and the clapboards have turned black. 1885 S. O. Jewett Marsh Isl. xiii, The wind was blowing, and a lilac bush outside brushed against the clapboards. |
† 2. Used without a or pl. as name of a substance, and collectively. Obs.
| 1543–4 Act 35 Hen. VIII, c. 8 As much clapborde or other borde mete for bere barrelles. a 1618 Raleigh Observ. in Rem. (1661) 180 Huge piles of Wainscot, Clapboard, Firdeal. 1622 Malynes Anc. Law-Merch. 81 The Commodities of Denmarke, and Norway, and Sweaden. Wheat, Rye, Woolles, Deales, Clap-boord, Pipe-staues, etc. 1650 E. Williams Virginia (ed. 2) title-p., The making of the Saw-mill..for cutting of Timber and Clapbord to build with all. 1745 De Foe's Eng. Tradesm. xlv. (1841) II. 165 Clapboard, and pipe and barrel staves..from Hamburg. 1887 Rogers Agric. & Prices V. 523 Entries of clove, clap, or claw board, generally bought for the navy. |
3. attrib. and in Comb.
| 1745 Lond. Mag. 402 Anchorsmiths..Clapboard splitters. 1839–40 W. Irving Wolfert's R. (1855) 204 A tolerably large bark shanty, with a clapboard roof. 1874 Knight Dict. Mech., Clap-board gage, a device used in putting on the weather-hoarding so as to leave a uniform width of face to the weather. |
▪ II. ˈclapboard, v. U.S.
[f. prec. n.]
trans. To cover or line with clapboards. Hence ˈclapboarded ppl. a.
| 1637 in New Plymouth Col. Rec. (1861) XII. 26 The house to be..clap boarded within..and a partition to be made of clap board. 1721 in Harvard College Rec. (1925) II. 457 Voted, That..the sd College be Clap-boarded on the East Side. 1835 Southern Lit. Messenger II. 53 The clap-boarded roof. 1840 R. Dana Bef. Mast xxii. 67 The sides of the between-decks were clapboarded. 1881 J. Hawthorne Fortune's Fool i. iv, The house..was built of wood throughout..it was clap-boarded. 1883 Bishop Old Mexico ii. xxiv. 349 Comfortable little clapboarded houses. |