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drawing board

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noun

a rectangular board on which paper is placed or mounted for drawing or drafting.

Idioms

    back to the drawing board, back to the original or an earlier stage of planning or development: Our plan didn't work out, so it's back to the drawing board.
    on the drawing board, in the planning or design stage: The shopping center is still on the drawing board.

Origin of drawing board

First recorded in 1715–25
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for drawing board

start

Examples from the Web for drawing board

Historical Examples of drawing board

  • She disappeared, and in a short time returned with her drawing-board.

  • Kittrell could not speak, and he turned the drawing-board to the wall.

  • The grasshopper was pinned to my drawing-board, and against a piece of newspaper.

    Eye Spy

    William Hamilton Gibson

  • The drawing-board is set so that the draughtsman's chair has the window on its left hand.

    Heartbreak House

    George Bernard Shaw

  • He shifted the drawing-board Rod had fixed up for him an inch or two.

    Ralestone Luck

    Andre Norton

British Dictionary definitions for drawing board

drawing board

noun

a smooth flat rectangular board on which paper, canvas, etc, is placed for making drawings
back to the drawing board return to an earlier stage in an enterprise because a planned undertaking has failed
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Idioms and Phrases with drawing board

drawing board

see back to the drawing board.

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.