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

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

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

He lays aside the lapboard whereon he drafts his bills of costs for the eyes of master Goff and master Shapland Tandy, filing consents and common searches and a writ of Duces Tecum.

From Ulysses by Joyce, James

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