clapperdudgeon arch.
Also 6–7 -dogen, -dogeon.
[app. f. clapper n. + dudgeon hilt of a dagger: the origin of the appellation is unknown. Collier suggests ‘from his knocking the clapdish he carried with a dudgeon’.]
A cant name for a beggar born; also used as a term of reproach or insult (cf. beggar).
| 1567 Harman Caveat 44 These Palliards be called also Clapperdogens. 1599 George a Greene (1861) 265 It is but the part of a clapperdudgeon to strike a man in the street. 1624 Bp. R. Montagu Gagg Pref. 17 They and their trulls may meet at their stawling kenns with such claperdogeons as yourselfe. c 1700 Street Robberies Consider'd, Clapper dudgeon, a beggar born. 1834 H. Ainsworth Rookwood ii. v. (1878) 198 No swigman, swaddler, clapper-dudgeon. 1863 Sala Capt. Dang. II. vii. 225 Rogues, Thieves..and Clapper-dudgeons..infested the outskirts of the Old Palace. |