• (a.) Having the side planks (af a boat) so arranged that the lower edge of each overlaps the upper edge of the plank next below it like clapboards on a house. See Lapstreak.
Clink'er-built adjective (Nautical) Having the side planks (af a boat) so arranged that the lower edge of each overlaps the upper edge of the plank next below it like clapboards on a house. See Lapstreak . 
Clinker-built, formerly clincher-built, was a term applied to a boat or ship built with the lower edge of each plank overlapping the one below it, like the tiles on a roof.
[adj] - (of ships) built with overlapping hull planks
clincher-built adjective (of ships) built with overlapping hull planks
faced or surfaced with boards, plates, etc., each course of which overlaps the one below, lapstrake. · noting a hull whose shell is formed of plankingor platingin which each strake overlaps the next one below and is overlapped by the next one above. Cf.