or clapper, subs. (common).—1. The tongue. [From CLAP = chatter; a babbler’s tongue is said to be hung in the middle, and to sound with both ends.] For synonyms, see CLACK.
a. 1225. The Ancren Riwle, 72. Þeone kuðen heo neuere astunten hore CLEPPE.
1609. DEKKER, The Guls Horne-booke, ch. vi. And to let that CLAPPER (your tongue) be tost so high, that all the house may ring of it.
1633. MASSINGER, A New Way to Pay Old Debts, III., 2. Greedy. Sir Giles, Sir Giles! Over. The great fiend, stop that CLAPPER!
1750. FIELDING, Tom Jones, bk. VII., ch. xv. My landlady was in such high mirth with her company that no CLAPPER could be heard there but her own.
1835. HALIBURTON (‘Sam Slick’), The Clockmaker, 1 S., ch. xix. I thought I should have snorted right out two or three times … to hear the critter let her CLAPPER run that fashion.
1861. T. HUGHES, Tom Brown at Oxford, ch. vi. But old Murdoch was too pleased at hearing his own CLAPPER going, and too full of whiskey, to find him out.
1878. JOHN PAYNE, tr. Poems of Villon, p. 139.
| Enough was left me (as warrant I will) | |
| To keep me from holding my CLAPPER still, | |
| When jargon that meant ‘You shall be hung’ | |
| They read to me from the notary’s bill: | |
| Was it a time to hold my tongue? |
2. (vulgar).—Gonorrhœa; once in polite use. [Origin uncertain; cf., Old Fr. clapoir, bosse, bubo, panus inguinis; clapoire, clapier, ‘lieu de débauche,’ ‘maladie q’on y attrape.’] For synonyms, see LADIES’ FEVER.
1587. Myrror for Magistrates, Malin iii. Before they get the CLAP.
1706. FARQUHAR, The Recruiting Officer. Five hundred a year besides guineas for CLAPS.
1709. SWIFT, A Project for the Advancement of Religion and the Reformation of Manners, Works [1755], II. i. 99. He will let you know he is going to a wench, or that he has got a CLAP, with as much indifferency, as he would a piece of publick news.
1738. JOHNSON, London, 114. They sing, they dance, clean shoes or cure a CLAP.
1881. In The New Sydenham Society’s Lexicon of Medicine and the Allied Sciences.
Verb (vulgar).—To infect with CLAP; see subs. Also figuratively.
d. 1659. F. OSBORN, Some Traditional Memorials on the Reign of King James [1673], 514. Till Atropos CLAPT him, a Pox on the Drab.
d. 1630. BUTLER, Remains [1759], I., 249. [They] had ne’er been CLAP’D with a poetic itch.
1738. ARBUTHNOT, Of the Hazards of Game, Pref. 9. It is hardly 1 to 10 … that a Town-Spark of that Age has not been clap’d.
