▪ I. clamper, n.1 Obs. exc. Sc.
(ˈklæmpə(r))
[f. clamper v.1]
A botched-up argument or charge.
| 1647 Jer. Taylor Dissuas. Popery ii. i. §1 What have the Churches done since? To what necessary truths are they, after all their clampers, advanc'd. a 1664 Jas. Spottiswood Mem. (1811) 61 (Jam.) His adversaryes were restless, and so found out a newe clamper. 1708 M. Bruce Lect. & Serm. 27 (Jam.) They bring to Christ's grave..a number of old clampers, pat and clouted arguments. 1825–79 in Jamieson. |
▪ II. clamper, n.2
(ˈklæmpə(r))
[f. clamp v.1 + -er1; cf. Ger. klampfer.]
That which clamps.
1. dial. A clamp; pl. clams, pincers, etc.
| 1825–79 Jamieson, Clamper, a piece of metal with which a vessel is mended; also, that which is thus patched up. Ibid., Clampers, a sort of pincers used for castrating bulls and other quadrupeds. 1876 Whitby Gloss. (E.D.S.), Clampers, claws, pincers. |
b. transf. Clutches; = clamp n.1 2 b.
| 1855 Whitby Gloss., If I had my clampers on him he should feel the weight o' my neaf. |
2. A piece of iron with prongs or points, fitted on the sole of the boot, to dig into the ice and prevent slipping; called also an ‘ice-creeper’. (In Sc. dial. clampet is used.)
| 1856 Kane Arct. Expl. I. xx. 258 Clampers, to steady them and their sledges on the irregular ice-surfaces. 1874 in Knight Dict. Mech. |
3. in clamper: see quot.
| 1883 Standard 23 Oct. 3/5 The land was ‘in clamper’, the Irish term for litigation. |
▪ III. clamper, n.3 dial.
(ˈklæmpə(r))
[f. clamp v.3 + -er1.]
He who or that which treads clumsily.
| 1876 Whitby Gloss., Clampers, wooden shoes or clogs. |
▪ IV. clamper, v.1 Now chiefly Sc.
(ˈklæmpə(r))
[App. a deriv. of clamp v.1 or v.2, or perh. vaguely combining the two. Cf. esp. clamp v.1 2.]
1. trans. To put together hastily or clumsily; to botch, tinker, or patch up. lit. and fig.
| 1545 R. Ascham Toxoph. (Arb.) 83 Rifraffe, pelfery, trumpery, baggage, and beggerie ware clamparde vp of one that would seme to be fitter for a shop in dede than to write any boke. 1563–87 Foxe A. & M. (1684) III. 5 This Apish mass became so clampered and patched together with so many divers and sundry additions. 1822 Scott Let. to Joanna Baillie 10 Feb. in Lockhart, If I can clamper up the story into a sort of single scene. 1862 R. Paul Let. in Mem. xviii. (1872) 239 Dr. Candlish has been in London to clamper up the Lord Advocate's Education Bill. |
† 2. intr. ‘Industriously to patch up accusations’ (Jamieson). Obs.
| a 1664 Jas. Spottiswood Mem. (1811), 71 (Jam.) He preuayled nothing by clamperinge with the bishopp of Clogher. |
Hence ˈclampering vbl. n.
| 1580 Sidney Arcadia v. (1622) 446 The people alreadie tyred with their owne diuisions (of which his clampring had beene a principall nurse). |
▪ V. clamper, v.2 dial.
(ˈklæmpə(r))
[derivative of clamp v.3]
intr. To tread heavily and clumsily.
| 1808 in Jamieson. 1821 Clare Vill. Minstr. II. 26 Every foot that clampers down the street Is for the..father's step mistook. |