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 Wi 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 Sandwich, Lett., in Pepys, Corresp., 275. ‘Fountaine of Schedam’ a busse laden with clawboards.
1721–1800. Bailey, Clap-board, a Board cut ready to make Casks, &c.
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., Clapboard, 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. 379–80. The strong easterly breeze, which, during the winter, had stripped all the surviving frames, one after the other, of clap-board 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. Sarah O. Jewett, Marsh Isl., xiii. The wind was blowing, and a lilac bush outside brushed against the clapboards.
† 2. Used without a or plural 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. W[illiams], Virginia, title-p., The making of the Saw-mill, very usefull in Virginia, for cutting of Timber and Clapbord to build withall.
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., Clapboard gage. A device used in putting on the weather-boarding of a house so as to leave a uniform width of face to the weather.
