splash-board
Also splashboard.
[f. prec.]
1. A guard or screen in front of the driver's seat on a vehicle, serving to protect him, or others sitting beside him, from being splashed with mud from the horse's hoofs. Also in fig. context.
| 1826 Disraeli Viv. Grey II. iii. viii. 121 By dint of rattling the whip against the splash-board. 1842 Dickens Amer. Notes (1850) 91/2 He takes a rein in each hand;..and dances on the splashboard with both feet. 1860 Thackeray Round. Papers, Late Gt. Vict., I was his conscience, and stood on the splash-board of his triumph-car. |
| 1861 G. M. Musgrave By-Roads 75 Our fast mare..had nearly pitched me on to the splashboard. 1894 Baring-Gould Kitty Alone II. 102 Pepperill fastened it to the splashboard, and drove on. |
2. A board fixed over or beside a wheel to intercept splashings.
| 1850 Holtzapffel Turning III. 1297 A splash-board is fixed behind the wheel, to catch the water thrown off, by centrifugal force. 1902 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 31 May 1341/2 It is further recommended that for the wet spinning rooms..modified splashboards should be obligatory. |
3. Naut. A screen above the deck-line.
| 1907 C. D. Stewart Partners of Providence vi, The splash⁓board stood up in front of the wheel like a back-yard fence. 1912 J. Masefield Dauber v, A sea Washed them both in, over the splashboard. |
4. A splashback; a protective panel attached to a wall.
| 1868 C. L. Eastlake Hints on Household Taste viii. 183 The common bed-room wash-stand..has a splash-board to protect the wall against which it is placed. 1976 Billings (Montana) Gaz. 16 June 11-a/4 Even a minimal remodeling job can cost $2,500 before the flower-print wallpaper is stuck on the splashboard. |