1. trans. To claw or scratch with the open hand and nails; to beat, thrash, drub. (Jamieson says ‘To fight at arm’s length, to strike a blow as a spider at a fly.’)
1590. Nashe, Pasquil’s Apol., I. D ij b. You should see me so clapper-claw him.
1598. Shaks., Merry W., II. iii. 67. He will Clapper-claw thee tightly (Bully).
1609. 1st Qo. Shaks. Tr. & Cr., Epist. ¶ 2. A new play, neuer stal’d with the Stage, neuer clapper-clawd with the palmes of the vulger.
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Clapperclaw’d, beat soundly, or paid off in earnest.
1805. Ann. Rev., III. 622. Representing the Cacodæmons flogging and clapperclawing them.
1855. Robinson, Whitby Gloss., Clapperclaw’d, pawed with the open hand, clawed and belaboured.
2. fig. To revile, abuse.
1692. Dennis, Poems in Burlesque, Ded. 3. Till ev’ry Ship with its great Name, By being Clapperclaw’d became An Irony and Jest of Fame.
1846. C. F. Cornwallis, Lett. (1864), 292. While we expected to be clapper-clawed, there was courage in braving it and speaking the truth.
Hence Clapperclawer, one who clapperclaws, a reviler; Clapperclawing vbl. sb.
1806. Southey, in C. Southey, Life, III. 8. By the Living Jingo … I would give him a most righteous clapper-clawing.
1809. W. Irving, Knickerb. (1849), 369. Two furious tom-cats on the point of a clapper-clawing.
1873. F. Hall, Mod. English, Pref. xiv. A wholesale sponsor … of superficial conceits, whose clientry of clapper-clawers, misrepresenting the character of my strictures, [etc.].
1887. Besant, The World went, xxxvii. 257. The clapperclawings, rubs, and buffets, [etc.].
