▪ I. strapper1
(ˈstræpə(r))
[f. strap v.1 + -er1.]
1. a. A ‘strapping’ or tall and robust person; one above the average stature and strength of build. (Chiefly applied to women. Cf. strapping ppl. a.)
| 1675 Wycherley Country Wife iii. ii, Come let us go too: Madam, your Servant. (To Alithea.) Good night Strapper.—(To Lucy [Alithea's maid].) 1690 Pagan Prince xxviii. 77 This Goddess..took him up in her Arms (for your Pagan Goddesses are all Strappers). 1706 Estcourt Fair Example i. i, She's a Strapper, and I'm a Pigmy. 1751 Smollett Per. Pic. xcv, Ah! you strapper, what a jolly bitch you are! 1802 G. Colman Br. Grins, Elder Bro. (1804) 118 Isaac ey'd Toby,..And saw he was a strapper,—stout and tall. 1842 J. Wilson Chr. North (1857) I. 157 She is what is delicately called a strapper, rosy-armed as the morning. 1847 C. Brontë J. Eyre xx, A strapper—a real strapper, Jane: big, brown, and buxom. |
† b. transf. A monstrous lie, ‘whopper’. Obs.
| 1677 W. Hughes Man of Sin i. x. 46 Did not the Pope deliver Trajan's, the Heathenish Persecuting Emperor's Soul from Hell, as they assure us; and whereof, with other strappers of the same breed, you will hear more fully hereafter? Ibid. iii. iii. 58 Such another Strapper is their talk about Christs Shrowd, or Winding-sheet. |
2. One who straps or grooms horses. Chiefly Austral. in later use.
| 1828 Sporting Mag. XXIII. 19, I found him in the yard, looking pretty slippery after the strappers. 1891 Field 7 Mar. p. xxix/1 Will any Gentleman recommend a strong, active man as Groom, under coachman;..must be thorough stableman, good strapper, and experienced with hunters. 1963 M. L. West Gallows on Sand i. 3 The strappers who stood round the tracks in the misty mornings trying to pick Saturday's winners. 1970 Sunday Truth (Brisbane) 19 July 30/6 He checked to see if he was registered as a strapper with any turf club in the country. |
3. slang. An unremitting worker.
| 1851 Mayhew Lond. Labour II. 305/1 They are all picked men in the shop—regular ‘strappers’, and no mistake. |
4. A labourer employed temporarily at busy seasons; an extra hand. Also see quot. 1892. dial. or local.
| 1888 Berksh. Gloss., Strapper, a journeyman labourer coming for work at harvest time or hay making. 1892 Labour Commission Gloss., Strappers, There is a system in vogue at the docks by which the conveyance of goods from the dock-quays to the piling grounds is done by contractors... Sometimes they require more men, and these are called strappers. |
5. A worker who furnishes or secures a thing with straps.
| 1881 Instructions to Census Clerks (1885) 79 Leather Goods..Maker. Strapper. 1921 Dict. Occup. Terms (1927) §047 Strapper, puts up straps of wood or steel in support of roof in machine cut coal face. Ibid. §345 Strapper, attaches straps to bags, trunks, etc. |
▪ II. strapper2 dial.
(ˈstræpə(r))
[? f. strap v.2 + -er1. Cf. stropper.]
(See quots.)
| 1777 Terrier in J. P. Briscoe Old Nottinghamsh. (1881) 37 Item: For every Milch Cow a composition of twopence, and for every Strapper (a cow that yields but little milk [Ed.]) one penny halfpenny. 1854 A. E. Baker Northampt. Gloss., Strappers, cows that are nearly dry, that yield little milk. |