tar paper
- noun
- /tɑr ˈpeɪpər/
- US
- The roof was patched with blistered tar paper.
- shingles and tar paper
The strips of wood that held the, the tar paper on were exactly the same dimensions.
- The strips of wood that held the, the tar paper on were exactly the same dimensions.
- And you know, the rez I grew up on was tar paper shacks, dirt floors.
Examples
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Shingles of tar paper nailed to the slanted roof wrinkle into gullies as rain beads into tears on the windowpane.
Fiction book (1991) -
And so that tar paper was protecting the subfloor.
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Before them was a small house covered with black tar paper held in place by strips of lathing.
Fiction book (1992) -
I found the truck parked in front of a house covered in brown tar-paper siding.
Fiction book (1994) -
We used tar paper for soles in our shoes; cardboard did not last. Winters were brutal.
Blog text (34) -
It's full of hastily built, constructed tar paper shacks and there are very minimal amenities.
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We made a few repairs, then we stapled down the new tar paper to ensure the roof was waterproof.
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Before them was a small house covered with black tar paper held in place by strips of lathing.
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The outside walls are half-finished, with tar paper dangling by the windows while we wait for better weather.
Synonyms
A heavy paper covered with tar that keeps a roof dry
How Waterproof
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a heavy, water-resistant paper impregnated with tar' is directly derivable from combining 'tar' (a viscous substance) with 'paper' (a sheet material): it denotes paper treated with tar for waterproofing. This is a transparent compound following standard noun-composition patterns and is likely comprehensible to a B1 learner who knows both constituents.
Etymology
Tar paper is a very literal name: builders soaked thin paper in sticky black tar to make a dark layer that kept water out. That's why tar paper means a heavy, 'waterproof' paper used on roofs to keep out the rain.