clap-dish arch.
[f. clap v.1 + dish.]
A wooden dish with a lid, formerly carried by lepers, beggars from the lazar-houses, and mendicants generally, to give warning of their approach, and to receive alms.
| [1567 Turberv. Ovid's Ep. 39 And banisht begge hir breade with dish and clap. ― Poems (1587), When Cressid clapt the dish and Lazer-like did goe.] 1577 Holinshed Chron. IV. 412 The poore lazer sicke people of the Magdalen, whose maner and usage was then, with a clapdish upon everie market daie to resort and come to the markets, and there to beg. 1607 Chapman Bussy D' Ambois Plays 1873 II. 43 A great man..That affects royaltie, rising from a clapdish. 1624 Massinger Parl. Love ii. ii, A leper, with a clap-dish to give notice He is infectious. a 1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Clap-dish, Its name survives only in a ludicrous comparison. Of a great prater it is said, that ‘his tongue moves like a beggar's clap-dish’. 1863 Sala Capt. Dang. II. vii. 226 A perfect chaos of clap-dishes..Impostors, fittous cripples, and gambling bullies. |
† b. Jocularly used of a talkative mouth. Obs.
| 1614 J. Cooke Tu Quoque in Hazl. Dodsley II. 274 Hold your clapdish, fasten your tongue Unto your roof. 1633 Ford Love's Sacr. iii. i, Come stop your clapdish. |