[f. KNACK v. + -ER1.]

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  † 1.  One who sings in a lively manner. Obs.

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c. 1380.  Wyclif, Wks. (1880), 191. Ȝif þes knackeris excusen hem bi song in þe olde lawe.

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  2.  Something that makes a sharp cracking noise; spec. a castanet. Now dial.

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1623–4.  Middleton & Rowley, Span. Gipsy, III. ii. (1653), E ij b. Our Knackers are the Fifes and Drums…. Our Knackers are the shot that flie.

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1647.  R. Stapylton, Juvenal, 220. Castinetta’s; knackers of the form of chesnuts, used to this day by the Spaniards in their dances.

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1649.  W. Cavendish, Varietie, III. 43. A Bachanalian dancing the Spanish Morisco, with knackers at his fingers.

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1877.  N. W. Linc. Gloss., Knackers, flat pieces of wood with which children beat time.

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