Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Plural form of clapboard.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The clapboards were a foot wide, evidently fashioned with care and beaded on the edges.

    The Reckoning 1899

  • Oldtimers in New England and New York, nothing the feather-like pattern, called the clapboards horsefeathers.

    VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol XIII No 1 1986

  • The terrible sickness and mortality of the whole company, afloat and ashore, had, of course, made it impossible to freight her as intended with "clapboards" [stave-stock], sassafras roots, peltry, etc.

    The Mayflower and Her Log; July 15, 1620-May 6, 1621 — Complete Azel Ames 1876

  • Their cabin, which may serve as a specimen of these rudiments of houses, was formed of round logs, with apertures of three or four inches: there was no chimney, but large intervals were left between the "clapboards," for the escape of the smoke.

    Travels in North America, From Modern Writers With Remarks and Observations; Exhibiting a Connected View of the Geography and Present State of that Quarter of the Globe William Bingley 1798

  • "clapboards" (as they call rough shingles in the old West) at the stars.

    The Hoosier Schoolmaster A Story of Backwoods Life in Indiana Edward Eggleston 1869

  • He tells of the high-hole that repeatedly drills through the clapboards of an empty house in a vain attempt to find a thickness of wood deep enough in which to build its nest.

    The Other Animals 2010

  • The house was quaint, with clapboards running up and down, neatly trimmed, and there were five rooms, a tiny porch, a rosy front yard, and unbelievably delicious strawberries in the rear.

    DARKWATER W.E.B. DU BOIS 2004

  • She knew she had only just gotten there, she knew she had no right to judge a place she didn't know, but there was something about it — the windows, reflecting the darkening sky, the bare trees laying their skeletal shadows on the white clapboards … she wondered if, in fact, she would be able to get any work done there at all.

    Country House 2010

  • Looking down, I saw flowers under my feet, and reached through the gap in a spill of white clapboards, plucking a plastic peony from a cast off graveyard wreath.

    Prom Date 2010

  • The dump smelled of the chaos of creation, of rusting metal and burned glass, chemicals and rancid rainwater, wet cardboard and rotting wood, paint slaking off clapboards and drums.

    Prom Date 2010

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