clapper
One who claps; a person who applauds by clapping the hands.
Noun
- One who claps; a person who applauds by clapping the hands.
- An object so suspended inside a bell that it may hit the bell and cause it to ring; a clanger or tongue.
- A wooden mechanical device used as a scarecrow; bird-scaring rattle, a wind-rattle or a wind-clapper.
- "Sir, sir! folks' tongues go like the clappers in the fields to drive away the blackbirds. A very little wind makes 'em rattle wonderfully." - 1896, Sabine Baring-Gould, Arminell, a social romance, Ch. 37:
- A clapstick (musical instrument).
- A pounding block.
- The chattering damsel of a mill.
- A slapshot
- The hinged part of a clapperboard, used to synchronise images and soundtrack, or the clapperboard itself.
- A person's tongue.
- Emilia 'tis true could use her clapper with great Dexterity, but he had the same advantages against her, which this had against him; Olimpia 's Tongue was also well hung but she ever had reason on her side, which he...
Origin
Etymology tree English clap Proto-Indo-European *-yósder. Proto-Italic *-āzijos Latin -āriusnom. Latin -āriusbor. Proto-Germanic *-ārijaz Proto-West Germanic *-ārī Old English -ere Middle English -ere English -er English clapper From clap + -er.
Forms
Synonyms
Derived
clapperboard clapper board clapperboy clapperclaw clapperless clapper-loader clapper rail clapper talk clapper-valve handclapper happy clapper like the clappers
Noun obsolete
- A rabbit burrow.
- Poore cunnie so bagged, Is soone overlagged Plash burrow, set clapper, For dog is a snapper - 1557 February 13 (Gregorian calendar), Thomas Tusser, A Hundreth Good Pointes of Husbandrie, London: […] Richard Tottel,...
Origin
Etymology tree French clapierbor. English clapper Borrowed from French clapier.
Forms
Related
Verb
- To ring a bell by pulling a rope attached to the clapper.
- It is still necessary to warn clergymen against allowing the lazy and pernicious practice of 'clappering,' i.e. tying the bell-rope to the clapper, and pulling it instead of the bell. - 1903, Baron Edmund Beckett...
- To make a repetitive clapping sound; to clatter.
- Of birds, to repeatedly strike the mandibles together.