tarpaper

American  

[tahr-pey-per] / ˈtɑrˌpeɪ pər /

noun

1. a heavy, tar-coated paper used as a waterproofing material in building construction.

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Etymology

Origin of tarpaper

An Americanism dating back to 1890–95; tar ¹ + paper

Example Sentences

“We just put down tarpaper,” son Bryan recalls, “and dropped the flat floor right onto the sloping cement.”

From Seattle Times

“If you’re just in your studio, you can make stuff out of spiderwebs and tarpaper and hot glue if you want to,” says sculptor Cris Bruch, who creates work for galleries and public projects — including Sound Transit, a three-county transportation agency that devotes 1% of its construction costs, minus the expense of tunneling, to public art.

From Seattle Times

Most camped across the Potomac River from the Capitol on Anacostia Flats where, as John Dos Passos wrote, "the men are sleeping in little lean-tos built out of old newspapers, cardboard boxes, packing crates, bits of tin or tarpaper roofing, every kind of cockeyed makeshift shelter from the rain scraped together out of the city dump."

From Salon

“But either because they can’t or because they refuse to leave, people tack new layers of tarpaper to the siding, or they duct-tape the broken windows, or slide concrete blocks under the worst sags, and stay,” Ferrence writes.

From Washington Times

The media mockery of a stiff and stone-faced vice president may have been unfair, but the images will stick to him like tarpaper.

From Fox News