lapboard

American  

[lap-bawrd, -bohrd] / ˈlæpˌbɔrd, -ˌboʊrd /

noun

1. a thin, flat board to be held on the lap for use as a table or writing surface.

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lapboard British  

/ ˈlæpˌbɔːd /

noun

1. a flat board that can be used on the lap as a makeshift table or desk

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Etymology

Origin of lapboard

First recorded in 1830–40; lap ¹ + board

Example Sentences

Nice additional touches: the lapboard features a magnetic design that prevents mouse slippage, and Razer estimates the lapboard’s battery life at 4 months, and the mouse’s 1000mAh Li-Po battery should deliver 40 hours of continuous use.

From Forbes • Jan. 6, 2015

Only once had he set Cropsie and his lapboard literature aside, and followed his own impulse.

From A Romance of Billy-Goat Hill by Rice, Alice Caldwell Hegan

She rushed in to where her father was writing on a lapboard across the arms of his chair.

From Janice Day the Young Homemaker by Long, Helen Beecher

The employer supplies a screw block or vice for gripping the bottom and cover sticks of square work, and a lapboard on which the workman fixes the upsetted bottom while siding up the basket.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 3 "Banks" to "Bassoon" by Various

Just in that way had Ozias Lamb sat and cobbled shoes on his lapboard for nearly forty years.

From Jerome, A Poor Man A Novel by Freeman, Mary Eleanor Wilkins