subs. (old).—1. Roman Catholics, ‘the Pope’s cockrels’ (1629). Also called BRISKET-BEATERS and, collectively, the BREAST-FLEET. In America a CRAWTHUMPER = an Irishman or DICK, i.e., an Irish Catholic.
1782. WOLCOT (‘Peter Pindar’), Lyric Odes, No. 7, in wks. (1809) I., 69. We are no CRAWTHUMPERS, no devotees.
1811. GROSE and CLARKE, Lexicon Balatronicum. CRAW THUMPERS. Roman catholics, so called from their beating their breasts in the confession of their sins.
1889. Philadelphia Public Ledger [quoted in A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon & Cant, p. 279]. Wanted a servant-maid. No pulings or CRAWTHUMPERS need apply.
