† gallow(s)-clapper Obs.
[f. gallows n. + clapper. ? From the swinging of the body to and fro like the clapper of a bell or of a scarecrow.]
= gallows-bird.
| 1570 Levins Manip. 81/4 A Gallowclapper, furcifer. 1583 Golding Calvin on Deut. li. 305 It is not only the gallowes-clappers that say so I meane those whose faultes and crymes are manifest. 1640 Brome Antip. ii. ix. Wks. 1873 III. 271 Come, come, ye Gallows-clappers. 1708 Motteux Rabelais v. vii, Their Worships as he call'd them were about a score of fusty Crackropes and Gallowclappers. |