Definition of "garboard" [gar•board]

• The first range or strake of planks laid next to a ship's keel. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The two first strakes (garboard strakes), however, are single, 7 inches thick, and are bolted both to the keel and to the frame-timbers."
• ""Well, that is queer!" they heard him mutter, as he thrust a finger through the hole in the garboard streak of the boat."
• "Close to her garboard strake on the starboard side he saw where"