Handboard
noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A board that is held in the hand or attached by a strap, used like a paddle when bodysurfing.
"The usual handboard is made of thin light wood such as plywood, about a foot long and nine inches wide, with a curved front, straight sides, and a sawn-off rear end."
- 2 A tablet-sized surface for writing or displaying text and images.
"Having occasion for a writing handboard, such as could be bought in London for 2s. 6d. or less, I was charged 7s. 6d. for one in Montreal."
- 3 A small hand-painted wooden sign, especially one indicating the direction (and possibly distance) to a particular location.
"A schoolmaster's etymology is a stupid affair, a handboard at the entrance of a cul-de-sac, or blind alley."
- 4 A device for securing, supporting, or guiding the hand; a handrest or splint.
"The scaffold was reached by a ladder projecting about a foot above the top of the scaffold , and then a handboard , fastened on one side , extended between one and two feet higher than the ladder ."
- 5 A long narrow board with a catch for holding a dart, spear, or harpoon used as a throwing device.
"If the oar is lost past recovery, they attempt to jerk themselves upwards by striking the water with the handboard of the harpoon, or a knife, or even the palm of the hand; but this experiment rarely succeeds."
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- 6 A flat surface with a handle on one side, used by a mason or plasterer; a hawk or mortarboard.
"Get the handboard and the trowel , each of us got that, Bancroft had one, too, and he lifted the stuff off from the board and give it up to us."
- 7 An artist's palette.
"Take a small quantity of White, and twice as much Vermillion and Lake, temper these with the flat of a Knife's blade upon your Pallet, or Handboard,, and use it for the deepest Carnation of the Face, adding moreover to a small part of it more white, and reserve that for a ligher Carnation."
- 8 A washboard. obsolete
"If it does, add water in small quantities at a time, until the ley, when put upon the handboard, does not run down from the soap, but appears as it were just starting from the soap."
- 9 A salver or tray for carrying items such as dishes. obsolete
"Lady Caroline again called, "Davison," and Mrs. Davison replying she was coming, took up the handboard, and once more left Mary in darkness."
- 10 A hand tool used to apply pressure to skins in order to finish them.
"In order to distinguish the ordinary kinds of knitted gloves from those which are formed out of the improved hosiery fabric, the patentee proposes to finish those made under his patent upon a hand-board, similar to that used in the finishing of leather gloves; whereby they will assume a fullness approaching to the form of the human hand, in contradistinction to the flat appearance produced by employing the flat hand-board."
- 1 To bodysurf using a handboard.
- 2 To finish leather using a handboard.
"This is obtained by a method of handboarding instead of the usual process of embossing."
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"The usual handboard is made of thin light wood such as plywood, about a foot long and nine inches wide, with a curved front, straight sides, and a sawn-off rear end."
Etymology
From hand + board.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.