[f. as prec. + -ER1.]
1. One who or that which clasps; a means for holding fast: often used more or less technically.
1551. Turner, Herbal, I. L ij a. The clasperes of the fyshe called polypus.
1712. Derham, in Phil. Trans., XXVII. 523. The two Claspers of the Micrometer.
1859. Carpenter, Anim. Phys., xii. (1872), 483. They may be more appropriately termed claspers than hands.
1869. Clifford, in Eng. Mech., 24 Dec., 345/2. The ‘false legs’ [of caterpillars]—more generally denominated ‘claspers,’ by naturalists of our day.
b. Bot. A tendril of a climbing plant.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb. (1596), I. 38.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, III. xlvi. 380. White Brionie is something like unto the common Vine in his leaves and Claspers.
1671. Grew, Anat. Plants, I. iii. App. § 3.
1691. Ray, Creation (1714), 111. Other species … furnished with Claspers and Tendrils.
a. 1722. Lisle, Husb. (1752), 198. The claspers of the peas had taken hold of it.
1823. J. Badcock, Dom. Amusem., 55. The claspers of briony shoot spirally.
c. Zool. in pl. Appendages of the male of certain fishes and insects, serving to hold the female.
1839–47. Todd, Cycl. Anat., III. 910/1. In some insects … the penis … is associated with special organs, termed claspers, which assist in the impregnating act.
1866. Owen, Anat. Vertabr., I. xii. 570 (L.). The claspers are present in the Chimæroid Fishes as well as in the Plagiostomes.
1880. Günther, Fishes, 348. The males are provided with ‘claspers’ in connection with the ventral fins.
2. One who makes clasps; one who fits books with clasps.
1885. Bookseller, 5 March, 307. Publishers’ bookbinders, book mounters and claspers.
