clapboard

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a long narrow siding board, usually thinner at one edge, laid horizontally so that each board overlaps the one below

   The carpenter replaced several rotten clapboards on the house.

2. 2
   noun

   clapboards considered collectively as exterior siding

   The cabin's clapboard had weathered to a silvery gray.

3. 3
   verb

   to cover a building with clapboards

   They clapboarded the frame before winter arrived.

From Middle English clapholt, influenced by Middle Low German or Middle Dutch klapholt, 'barrel stave,' with the final element later replaced by English board. The name passed from split wooden staves to overlapping exterior siding.

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