handboard

handboard noun: a board that is held in the hand or attached by a strap, used like a paddle when bodysurfing.

Noun

handboard (plural handboards)

A board that is held in the hand or attached by a strap, used like a paddle when bodysurfing.
- The usual handboard is made of thin light wood such as plywood, about a foot long and nine inches wide, with a curved front, straight sides, and a sawn-off rear end.1967, Midget Farrelly, The Surfing Life, page 183
- "All I see him doing is riding this handboard," says Nellis.1999, Bruce Jenkins, North Shore Chronicles: Big-wave Surfing in Hawaii, page 73
Synonyms:

handplane
A tablet-sized surface for writing or displaying text and images.
- Having occasion for a writing handboard, such as could be bought in London for 2s. 6d. or less, I was charged 7s. 6d. for one in Montreal.1883 August, George Jacob Holyoake, “American and Canadian Notes”, in The Nineteenth Century, volume 14, page 298
- These forms can be fastened to a handboard by means of thumb tacks and some blank pieces of paper for use in keeping tab on various features can be fastened in a bunch by a string and attached to the board.1920, Construction Methods & Equipment, page 15, column 1
A small hand-painted wooden sign, especially one indicating the direction (and possibly distance) to a particular location.
- A schoolmaster's etymology is a stupid affair, a handboard at the entrance of a cul-de-sac, or blind alley.1868, J. Peter Lesley, Man's Origin and Destiny, page 336
- I am not one, Mr. Editor, who would discard the knowledge gained by vivisection or physiological medicine; they have their place, but at best can but serve as handboards to guide us on to grander truths, learned clinically.1896, Medical Brief: A Monthly Journal of Scientific Medicine and Surgery, page 702, column 1
A device for securing, supporting, or guiding the hand; a handrest or splint.
- The scaffold was reached by a ladder projecting about a foot above the top of the scaffold , and then a handboard , fastened on one side , extended between one and two feet higher than the ladder .1897, Illinois. Appellate Court, Edwin Burritt Smith, Martin L. Newell, Reports of Cases Decided in the Appellate Courts of the State of Illinois, page 165
- A short handboard may be required to limit wrist motion . If restraints are necessary they should be applied around the handboard, not the patient's wrist, as this could cause arterial pressure interference and increase the risk of catheter kinking or dislodgement.1998, Ada Lawrence Plumer, Faye Cosentino, Plumer's Principles and Practice of Intravenous Therapy, page 491
A long narrow board with a catch for holding a dart, spear, or harpoon used as a throwing device.
- If the oar is lost past recovery, they attempt to jerk themselves upwards by striking the water with the handboard of the harpoon, or a knife, or even the palm of the hand; but this experiment rarely succeeds.1820, The History of Greenland, page 141
- The weapon is in very general use at Point Barrow , and is always thrown from the boat with a handboard ( to be described below ) .1892, Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, page 211
A flat surface with a handle on one side, used by a mason or plasterer; a hawk or mortarboard.
- Get the handboard and the trowel , each of us got that, Bancroft had one, too, and he lifted the stuff off from the board and give it up to us.1914, Supreme Court Apellate Division-Fourth Department: Record on Appeal, page 121
- This is a small handboard used with a pointing trowel and its purpose is to support small amounts of pointing mortar ( figure 1.31 ) .1990, Harold Bailey, David W. Hancock, Brickwork 1 and Associated Studies, page 6
An artist's palette.
- Take a small quantity of White, and twice as much Vermillion and Lake, temper these with the flat of a Knife's blade upon your Pallet, or Handboard,, and use it for the deepest Carnation of the Face, adding moreover to a small part of it more white, and reserve that for a ligher Carnation.1710, John White, Art's Treasury of Rarities and Curious Inventions, page 47
(obsolete) A washboard.
- If it does, add water in small quantities at a time, until the ley, when put upon the handboard, does not run down from the soap, but appears as it were just starting from the soap.1830, Sir David Brewster, The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, page 266
(obsolete) A salver or tray for carrying items such as dishes.
- Lady Caroline again called, "Davison," and Mrs. Davison replying she was coming, took up the handboard, and once more left Mary in darkness.1797, Alethea Lewis, Disobedience, page 50
- I have sent a waiter, or handboard, japanned with varnish made from this residuum, and the volatile oil above mentioned.1811, B. Cook, “Method of producing Heat, Light, and various useful Articles, from Pit-coal”, in Philosophical Magazine, volume 37, page 332
A hand tool used to apply pressure to skins in order to finish them.
- In order to distinguish the ordinary kinds of knitted gloves from those which are formed out of the improved hosiery fabric, the patentee proposes to finish those made under his patent upon a hand-board, similar to that used in the finishing of leather gloves; whereby they will assume a fullness...1847, William Newton, “Recent Patents”, in The London journal of arts and sciences, page 314
- Sides or skins finished by folding with grain side in and rubbing the surface together under pressure of an instrument known as a handboard .1933, United States. Department of the Treasury, Treasury Decisions Under Customs and Other Laws, page 650

Verb

handboard (third-person singular simple present handboards, present participle handboarding, simple past and past participle handboarded)

To bodysurf using a handboard.
To finish leather using a handboard.
- This is obtained by a method of handboarding instead of the usual process of embossing.1902, Luggage and Leather Goods, page 50
- Comber and gill box apron leather is soft, mellow, and tough, tanned from steer hides, heavily stuffed, and usually handboarded or otherwise softened.1941, “Leather Terminology”, in Establishing and Operating a Shoe Repair Business (Industrial Series; No. 17), page 166

Examples of handboard in a sentence

One guy came out with a handboard with a strap on it, but it never caught on. — Wally Froiseth. dec 3, 2007.2011, John R. K. Clark, “Traditional Hawaiian Surf Sports”, in Hawaiian Surfing: Traditions from the Past, Honolulu, Haw.: University of...
Villy focuses on the saucer pearl like a bodysurfer leaning into a handboard.2019, Rudy rucker, Million Mile Road Trip:
This principle is followed during Stage 1 in the use of a phonics handboard.1993, Read, page 32:
He leaned his head close to his handboard and engaged in furious scribbling with his stylus, doing figures and checking results at a speed that suggested long practice.2002, Holly Lisle, Vincalis the Agitator:

Synonyms of handboard

handplane

Forms of handboard

Noun
plural	handboards
Verb
third-person singular present	handboards
present participle	handboarding
past participle	handboarded
past	handboarded

Origin of handboard

From hand + board.

Questions about handboard

What does handboard mean?: Handboard means a board that is held in the hand or attached by a strap, used like a paddle when bodysurfing.
How do you use handboard in a sentence?: One guy came out with a handboard with a strap on it, but it never caught on. — Wally Froiseth. dec 3, 2007.
What part of speech is handboard?: Handboard can be a noun or a verb.
What is the plural of handboard?: The plural of handboard is handboards.

Words near handboard in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: handboard (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “handboard.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/handboard. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.