Brewer's: Clapper

A plank bridge over a stream; a ferry-gate. A roofing-board is called a clap-board.

A little low and lonesome shed, With a roof of clap-boards overhead.

Alice Cary: Settlers' Christmas Eve.

Probably a corruption of clath-board, a covering board, from Anglo-Saxon, clath, a covering, whence our clothes.

Boards for making casks are also called “clap-boards.”

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