Definition of "placard"

Especially from Mr. Borthrop Trumbull, a distinguished bachelor and auctioneer of those parts, much concerned in the sale of land and cattle: a public character, indeed, whose name was seen on widely distributed placards, and who might reasonably be sorry for those who did not know of him.

1871–1872, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], Middlemarch […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, book (please specify |book=I to VIII)

He brought out the placard, which was quite a work of art. It was nearly two feet long, printed on calendered paper, with a selection of colors so bright that they shone even in the moonlight.

1905, Upton Sinclair, chapter IV, in The Jungle, New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 26 February 1906

While her husband read the placards pasted on the brick announcing the hours at which certain ships would sail for Scotland, Mrs. Ambrose did her best to find information.

1915, Virginia Woolf, The Voyage Out, London: The Hogarth Press, published 1949

Towards the end of August, the Southern Railway decided to adopt a novel form of publicity to popularise the services. Sandwich board men were employed at Charing Cross and Cannon Street to display placards, and distribute leaflet timetables, calling attention to the vacant seats on the services via Nunhead.

1946 November and December, “Additional London-Dartford Services”, in Railway Magazine, page 386

All placards or edicts are published in his name.

1655, James Howell, “A Survey of the Seventeen Provinces”, in Epistolæ Ho-Elianæ. Familiar Letters Domestic and Forren. […], 3rd edition, volume (please specify the page), London: […] Humphrey Mos[e]ley, […]

The inner walls of the church were placarded with large mural tablets of copper, bearing engraved inscriptions celebrating the merits of old Heilbronn worthies of two or three centuries ago, […]

1880, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], A Tramp Abroad; […], Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company; London: Chatto & Windus

The mail coaches were placarded PEACE WITH FRANCE in large capitals, and the drivers all wore a sprig of laurel, as an emblem of peace, in their hats.

1890, John Ashton, The Dawn of the XIXth Century in England‎

In the afternoon Sue and the other people bustling about Kennetbridge fair could hear singing inside the placarded hoarding farther down the street.

1894 December – 1895 November, Thomas Hardy, chapter VIII, in Jude the Obscure, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], published 1896

These men, who have already caused you so much harm, whom you yourselves dispersed on the 31st of October, are placarding their intention to protect you against the Prussians, who have only made an appearance within our walls, […]

1871, John Leighton, Paris under the Commune‎