Forms: 4–6 claper, (4 cleper, 5 clapur, -yr(e, -ir, -ere, clapparre, 6 clepper), 5– clapper. [f. CLAP v.1 + -ER.]
I. An apparatus for clapping, or making a noise.
1. The contrivance in a mill for striking or shaking the hopper so as to make the grain move down to the millstones; the CLACK or CLAP of a mill.
1340. Ayenb., 58. Tonges … þet byeþ ase þe cleper of þe melle, þet ne may him naȝt hyealde stille.
1509. Barclay, Shyp Folys (1874), I. 109. Wymen … can nat speke, but ar as coy and styll, As the whirle winde or clapper of a mill.
1693. W. Robertson, Phraseol. Gen., 337. A clapper of a Mill, crepitaculum.
2. The lid of a clap-dish, or a rattle carried for the same purpose by beggars or lepers. Obs. exc. Hist. (Cf. CLAP-DISH.)
c. 1320. Sir Tristr., 3173. Coppe and claper he bare … As he a mesel ware.
c. 1440. Generydes, 4273. [Generides in a beggar’s clothes] Holdyng his cuppe, his claper in his hande.
1532. More, Confut. Tindale, Wks. 498/2. A begging with a dishe and a clapper.
1653. H. Cogan, trans. Pinto’s Trav., xxxi. § 1. 122. They … go up and down the streets with certain Clappers, like our Spittle men.
1859. Jephson, Brittany, vi. 76–7. The leper was provided with a hood, a cloak, a sheepskin rug, a pair of clappers, [etc.]…. The pair of clappers were for giving notice of his approach.
3. The tongue of a bell, which strikes it on the inside and causes it to sound.
1379. Mem. Ripon (Surtees), III. 100. j lb. ferri emp. pro le claper, et aliis necessariis … pro dicta campana liganda, et factura del claper.
1393. Gower, Conf., II. 13. Dombe … as … the belle, Whiche hath no clapper for to chime.
c. 1450. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 567. Batillus, a belle clapere vel a swyngell.
1599. Shaks., Much Ado, III. ii. 13. He hath a heart as sound as a bell, and his tongue is the clapper.
1660. Boyle, New Exp. Phys.-Mech., xxvii. 205. A Bell, with a Steel Clapper.
1864. Engel, Mus. Anc. Nat., 68. In Japan the bells never have tongues or clappers, but are always struck from without by a piece of wood.
† b. Hence applied to the pistil or the spadix of certain flowers. Obs.
[1578. Lyte, Dodoens, II. xx. 171. The floures … almost fasshioned lyke a Bell or Cymball, with a small white clapper in the middle.] Ibid., III. vi. 321. His pestill or clapper … is like unto Aron or Cockow-pint.
4. fig. A talkative person’s tongue. colloq.
[1583. Stanyhurst, Æneis, IV. (Arb.), 101. So manye squint eyebals … So manye tongues clapper.]
1638. H. Shirley, Mart. Soldier, II. i. in Bullen, O. Pl., I. 193. That Clapper of the Divell, the tongue of a Scould.
1698. Vanbrugh, Prov. Wife, II. i. There, her single clapper has publish’d the sense of the whole sex.
1708. Brit. Apollo, I. No. 2. 3/2. Like a Magpye, whose Clapper is Slit.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, viii. You will … set him a-ringing his clapper as if he were a town-bell on a rejoicing day.
5. The name of various contrivances for making a continuous or repeated clapping noise; spec. a. A rattle used to summon people to church on the last three days of Holy Week (= CLAP sb.1 9 d); b. Sc. a rattle used by a public crier (= CLAP sb.1 9 d); c. a contrivance for scaring away birds, either a rattle shaken in the hand, or an apparatus with small sails turned by the wind.
1566. in E. Peacock, Eng. Ch. Furn. (1866), 43. One Sacring bell, two clappers, one paire of Sensors … wee knowe not what is become of theim.
1660. Pepys, Diary, 19 May. We met with the bellman, who struck upon a clapper … it is just like the clapper that our boys frighten the birds away … with … in England.
1847. Tennyson, Princess, II. 209. A clapper clapping in a garth, To scare the fowl from fruit.
1869. Life of Marg. Mary Hallahan, 533, note. Notice of any Sister being in her agony is given by a particular clapper only used at such times, and during those days in Holy Week when the bells are silent.
† 6. A door-knocker. Obs.
1617. Minsheu, Duct. Ling., s.v. Clapper of a doore, because it maketh a noise, clap, clap.
1693. W. Robertson, Phraseol. Gen., 338. A clapper of a door, cornix pulsatoria.
† 7. The clack-valve of a pump. Obs.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), Clapet de pompe, the clapper of a pump-box.
II. 8. One who claps or applauds; a claquer.
1824. W. Irving, T. Trav., II. 48. The pit was to be packed with sturdy clappers.
1849. D. G. Mitchell, Battle Summer (1852), 210. To-morrow these clappers of hands … will be sour-faced, and asking for bread!
III. 9. Comb., as clapper-rope; clapper-stone, Geol. (see quot.).
1594. Churchw. Acc. St. Lawrence, Reading, in Ellacombe, Bells of Ch., ii. (1872), 25. Toling ye bell by ye clapper rope.
1878. Lawrence, trans. Cotta’s Rocks Class., 89. A small concretion is found loose in the hollow interior of the larger one, so as to rattle in it when shaken (clapper-stones).
