clapboard
clapboard Lexical Profile
clapboard Game Scores & Validity
• noun
North American A long, narrow wooden board with one edge thicker than the other, laid horizontally in overlapping rows to cover the outer walls of frame buildings.
"The historic New England cottage was sheathed in white-painted cedar clapboards that had weathered over a century of coastal storms."
A hinged board or slate struck together at the beginning of a film take to synchronize picture and sound and to identify the scene.
"The assistant director snapped the clapboard shut right before the lead actor delivered his opening line."
• verb
North American To cover the exterior walls of a building with overlapping horizontal wooden boards.
"The carpenters spent the entire week working to clapboard the newly framed barn before the autumn rains arrived."
• Rhymes for clapboard
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Entered English in the early 16th century as a partial translation of Middle Dutch klapholt (meaning 'stave-wood'), from klappen ('to split or crack') and holt ('wood'), with the English element 'board' substituted for 'holt'.