▪ I. clapper, n.1
(ˈklæpə(r))
Forms: 4–6 claper, (4 cleper, 5 clapur, -yr(e, -ir, -ere, clapparre, 6 clepper), 5– clapper.
[f. clap v.1 + -er.]
I. An apparatus for clapping, or making a noise.
1. The contrivance in a mill for striking or shaking the hopper so as to make the grain move down to the millstones; the clack or clap of a mill.
| 1340 Ayenb. 58 Tonges..þet byeþ ase þe cleper of þe melle, þet ne may him naȝt hyealde stille. 1509 Barclay Shyp Folys (1874) I. 109 Wymen..can nat speke, but ar as coy and styll, As the whirle winde or clapper of a mill. 1693 W. Robertson Phraseol. Gen. 337 A clapper of a Mill, crepitaculum. |
2. The lid of a clap-dish, or a rattle carried for the same purpose by beggars or lepers. Obs. exc. Hist. (Cf. clap-dish.)
| c 1320 Sir Tristr. 3173 Coppe and claper he bare..As he a mesel ware. c 1440 Generydes 4273 [Generides in a beggar's clothes] Holdyng his cuppe, his claper in his hande. 1532 More Confut. Tindale Wks. 498/2 A begging with a dishe and a clapper. 1653 H. Cogan tr. Pinto's Trav. xxxi. §1 122 They..go up and down the streets with certain clappers, like our Spittle men. 1859 Jephson Brittany vi. 77 The leper was provided with a hood, a cloak, a sheepskin rug, a pair of clappers..for giving notice of his approach. |
3. a. The tongue of a bell, which strikes it on the inside and causes it to sound. Slang phr. like the clappers: very fast or very hard.
| 1379 Mem. Ripon (Surtees) III. 100, j lb. ferri emp. pro le claper, et aliis necessariis..pro dicta campana liganda, et factura del claper. 1393 Gower Conf. II. 13 Dombe..as..the belle, Whiche hath no clapper for to chime. c 1450 Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 567 Batillus, a belle clapere vel a swyngell. 1599 Shakes. Much Ado iii. ii. 13 He hath a heart as sound as a bell, and his tongue is the clapper. 1660 Boyle New Exp. Phys. Mech. xxvii. 205 A Bell, with a Steel Clapper. 1864 Engel Mus. Anc. Nat. 68 In Japan the bells never have tongues or clappers, but are always struck from without by a piece of wood. 1948 Partridge Dict. Forces' Slang 42 Like the clappers (of hell), very fast. Mostly R.A.F. 1957 M. K. Joseph I'll soldier no More (1958) 16 It was raining like the clappers. 1958 J. Wain Contenders ix. 193 Seeing it's you, I'm going to surrender like the clappers. 1959 J. Braine Vodi ix. 128, I've got to work like the clappers this morning. |
† b. Hence applied to the pistil or the spadix of certain flowers. Obs.
| [1578 Lyte Dodoens ii. xx. 171 The floures..almost fasshioned lyke a Bell or Cymball, with a small white clapper in the middle.] Ibid. iii. vi. 321 His pestill or clapper..is like unto Aron or Cockow-pint. |
c. Cinemat. Usu. pl., or attrib., as clapper board (see quots.). (See also clapper-boy below.)
| 1940 Chambers's Techn. Dict. 166/1 Clappers, a device, usually consisting of two hinged pieces of board, which is closed sharply in front of a camera in sound-film production, thus providing synchronisation indication on the picture-track and the sound-track. 1959 Elizabethan June 24/2 This board is called the ‘clapper board’, because of a small piece of wood which is slapped down and makes a noise on the sound track. |
4. fig. A talkative person's tongue; a person's mouth. colloq.
| [1583 Stanyhurst æneis iv. (Arb.) 101 So manye squint eyebals..So manye tongues clapper.] 1638 H. Shirley Mart. Soldier ii. i. Bullen in O.Pl. I. 193 That Clapper of the Divell, the tongue of a Scould. 1698 Vanbrugh Prov. Wife ii. i, There, her single clapper has publish'd the sense of the whole sex. 1708 Brit. Apollo I. No. 2. 3/2 Like a Magpye, whose Clapper is Slit. 1828 Scott F.M. Perth viii, You will..set him a-ringing his clapper as if he were a town-bell on a rejoicing day. 1938 G. Greene Brighton Rock ii. i. 75 He just thought it'd close her clapper. 1961 J. Maclaren-Ross Doomsday Book i. iii. 37 Keep your clapper shut. Ibid. i. vii. 75 Hold your clapper now. |
5. The name of various contrivances for making a continuous or repeated clapping noise; spec. a. A rattle used to summon people to church on the last three days of Holy Week (= clap n.1 9 d); b. Sc. a rattle used by a public crier (= clap n.1 9 d); c. a contrivance for scaring away birds, either a rattle shaken in the hand, or an apparatus with small sails turned by the wind.
| 1566 in E. Peacock Eng. Ch. Furn. (1866) 43 One Sacring bell, two clappers, one paire of Sensors..wee knowe not what is become of theim. 1660 Pepys Diary 19 May, We met with the bellman, who struck upon a clapper..it is just like the clapper that our boys frighten the birds away..with..in England. 1847 Tennyson Princ. ii. 209 A clapper clapping in a garth, To scare the fowl from fruit. 1869 Life Marg. M. Hallahan (1870) 541 note, Notice of any sister being in her agony is given by a particular clapper only used at such times, and during those days in Holy Week when the bells are silent. |
† 6. A door-knocker. Obs.
| 1617 Minsheu Duct. Ling. s.v. Clapper of a doore, because it maketh a noise, clap, clap. 1693 W. Robertson Phraseol. Gen. 338 A clapper of a door, cornix pulsatoria. |
† 7. The clack-valve of a pump. Obs.
| 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine (1789), Clapet de pompe, the clapper of a pump-box. |
II. 8. One who claps or applauds; a claquer.
| 1824 W. Irving T. Trav. II. 48 The pit was to be packed with sturdy clappers. 1849 Mitchell Battle Summer (1852) 210 These clappers of hands. |
III. 9. Comb., as clapper-rope; clapper-bill, a name for the open-bill stork, Anastomus lamelligerus; clapper-bolt, the bolt by which the clapper is attached to a bell; clapper-boy, a boy who works a clapper (senses 5 c and 3 c); clapper rail U.S., a species of rail or marsh-hen; clapper-stay, a detent for the clapper of a bell, used in silent practice-ringing; clapper-stone, Geol. (see quot.); clapper-valve, a clack-valve.
| 1906 F. Whyte tr. Schillings's With Flashlight & Rifle I. 75 Now flit past a number of those very remarkable birds aptly termed *clapper-bills. |
| 1901 H. E. Bulwer Gloss. Techn. Terms Bells 2 The modern practice is to insert, subsequently to casting, a bolt having a hinge joint, in which the ‘clapper’ is secured. This bolt is called the ‘*clapper-bolt’. |
| 1937 Evening News 23 Mar. 13/7 Years ago small boys were engaged for the sum of sixpence a week, to scare birds away from sown fields. The boys were known as ‘*clapper boys’. 1950 ‘E. Crispin’ Freq. Hearses i. 45 A clapper-boy self-consciously clapped his instrument together in front of the lens. |
| 1813 Wilson Amer. Ornith. VII. 112 The *Clapper Rail, or, as it is generally called, the Mud Hen, soon announces its arrival..by its loud, harsh and incessant cackling. 1955 Sci. News Let. 3 Sept. 157/1 The clapper rail builds its nest on high spots within salt marshes. |
| 1594 Churchw. Acc. St. Lawrence, Reading in Ellacombe Bells of Ch. ii. (1872) 25 Toling y⊇ bell by y⊇ *clapper rope. |
| a 1884 Knight Dict. Mech. Suppl., *Clapper Stay, a detent for the clapper in a bell. |
| 1878 Lawrence tr. Cotta's Rocks Class. 89 A small concretion is found loose in the hollow interior of the larger one, so as to rattle in it when shaken (*clapper-stones). |
| 1874 Knight Dict. Mech., *Clapper-valve. |
▪ II. † ˈclapper, n.2 Obs.
Also 5 clapere, 5–6 claper, 6 clapar.
[a. F. clapier (AF. probably claper) rabbit-hole, Pr. clapier (cf. clapiera heap of stones, clap heap); in med.L. claperius, -um, -a, ‘rabbit-hole’ from 14th c., previously ‘heap of stones’; so clapus, clapa (Du Cange). The origin of the med.L. is unknown: see Littré and Diez; a Celtic derivation is rejected by Thurneysen.]
A rabbit-burrow; also applied to a place constructed for keeping tame rabbits.
| c 1400 Rom. Rose 1405 Conies..That comen out of her claperes. 1494 Fabyan vii. 395 The woddes..wherin..they vsed to hyde theym as a cony doth in his claper. 1573 Tusser Husb. (1878) 86 Plash burrow, set clapper, for dog is a snapper. 1611 Cotgr., Clapier, a Clapper of Conies; a heape of stones &c. whereinto they retire themselues; or (as our clapper) a Court walled about, and full of neasts of boords, or stone, for tame Conies. 1616 Surfl. & Markh. Country Farme 645 On the tops of these burroughs or clappers. 1725 Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Warren, [They] take care to stock their Warren, by the means of a Clapper of Coneys. |
| transf. 1572 T. Wilson Usury, The poore gentleman is caught in the cony clapper. 1594 T. B. La Primaud. Fr. Acad. ii. 403 A childe..when he is borne..a man when he dieth..are vnwilling to come forth of their clapper and to forsake their closet. |
▪ III. clapper, n.3 local.
(ˈklæpə(r))
[? clapper n.2]
In full clapper bridge: a rough bridge or raised path of stones or planks.
| 1793 Polwhele Hist. Dev. II. 277 Clapper-bridge, partly in Honiton and partly in Combe-Raleigh, is chiefly built of flint stone. 1852 N. & Q. 1st Ser. VI. 542 We have here [at Edburton, Sussex] a lane called Clappers, so named from its ‘clapper’, i.e. a raised footpath at side, to keep foot-passengers out of the water. 1887 Parish & Shaw Kentish Dial. 1889 J. L. W. Page Explor. Dartmoor iii. 53 Piers of undressed granite blocks support two or more superincumbent slabs, of width sufficient for the passage of a vehicle..and varying in length according to the breadth of the river. A specimen easily accessible is that which spans the East Dart at Postbridge... Other specimens of these ‘clapper’ bridges..exist on the Moor. 1908 W. Johnson Folk Memory 67 Certain ‘clapper’ bridges, crossing the streams of Exmoor and Dartmoor, are often assigned to the Bronze Age, but they are more probably relics of pack-horse days. 1966 New Statesman 17 June 879/1 There was a stone clapper-bridge beside the other one. |
▪ IV. clapper, v.
(ˈklæpə(r))
[f. clapper n.1]
1. trans. Bell-ringing. To sound (a bell) by pulling a rope attached to the clapper.
| 1872 Ellacombe Bells Ch. i. 25 Bells are sometimes chimed by..‘clocking’ or ‘clappering’ them; that is by hitching the rope round the flight or tail of the clapper, so as to pull it athwart against the side of the bell. 1882 Standard 27 Mar. 6/7 More bells have been cracked from being ‘clappered’ than from any other cause. |
2. intr. To make a noise like a clapper.
| 1845 S. Judd Margaret i. xvii. 163 The house jarred and creaked,..loose boards on the roof clappered and rattled. 1884 F. M. Crawford Rom. Singer I. 230 The clattering clappering click of the castanets. |
Hence ˈclappering vbl. n., (a) the fitting of a clapper to a bell; (b) the action of the verb (sense 1); (c) a noise like that made by the clapper of a bell.
| 1526 in House & Robus Hist. Gt. Dunmow Parish Church (1926) 25 Item for claperynge of iij letell bells for ye canepe. 1874 E. Beckett Clocks & Watches (ed. 6) 365 The lazy and pernicious practice of ‘clappering’, i.e. tying the bell-rope to the clapper, and pulling it instead of the bell. 1891 Pall Mall Gaz. 7 Dec. 6/1 He chatters in imitation of the ‘clappering’ of a stork. 1904 C. L. Marson Folk Songs Somerset p. xi, The clapperings of the steam-binder. |