[Of uncertain origin: app. connected with prec. sb. But it has the appearance of an onomatopœic word of frequentative form: cf. slobber, slubber, also clamper to botch, tinker, or patch up.] trans. To patch up, cobble.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, I. 369/1. The best black suits are to be ‘clobbered’ up.
Hence Clobberer, a patcher of clothes and shoes.
1864. Times, 3 Nov., 6/6. The duty of the ‘clobberer’ is to patch, to sew up, and to restore as far as possible the garments to their pristine appearance.
1866. Lond. Rev., 27 Oct., 459/2. There are various epithets for shoemakers … there are welters, repairers, clobberers, clickers.
