clapper

plural clappers

1. One who claps; a person who applauds by clapping the hands.
2. An object so suspended inside a bell that it may hit the bell and cause it to ring; a clanger or tongue.
3. A wooden mechanical device used as a scarecrow; bird-scaring rattle, a wind-rattle or a wind-clapper.

   "Sir, sir! folks' tongues go like the clappers in the fields to drive away the blackbirds. A very little wind makes 'em rattle wonderfully."

   1896, Sabine Baring-Gould, Arminell, a social romance, Ch. 37

4. A clapstick (musical instrument).

   Synonyms: clapstick, musicstick

5. businessA pounding block.
6. The chattering damsel of a mill.
7. hobbiesA slapshot
8. broadcastingThe hinged part of a clapperboard, used to synchronise images and soundtrack, or the clapperboard itself.
9. slangA person's tongue.

   1 more example

   Emilia 'tis true could use her clapper with great Dexterity, but he had the same advantages against her, which this had against him; Olimpia 's Tongue was also well hung but she ever had reason on her side, which he with reason could never either blame or oppose, and by both these came his Fortune: […]

   1683, S. P., The Dutch Rogue, Or, Gusman of Amsterdam, page 238

present singular third person clappers · participle present clappering · participle past clappered · past clappered

1. transitiveTo ring a bell by pulling a rope attached to the clapper.

   It is still necessary to warn clergymen against allowing the lazy and pernicious practice of 'clappering,' i.e. tying the bell-rope to the clapper, and pulling it instead of the bell.

   1903, Baron Edmund Beckett Grimthorpe, A rudimentary treatise on clocks and watches and bells

2. To make a repetitive clapping sound; to clatter.
3. Of birds, to make such a noise by repeatedly striking the mandibles together.

   [W]hile he was away Hinzelmann began suddenly to clapper in the ladies' chamber like a stork, and then said, "Maid Anne, you much go look for your things to-day in the mill-stream."

   1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume II, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 53

plural clappers

1. obsoleteA rabbit burrow.

   Poore cunnie so bagged, Is soone overlagged Plash burrow, set clapper, For dog is a snapper

   1557 February 13 (Gregorian calendar), Thomas Tusser, A Hundreth Good Pointes of Husbandrie, London: […] Richard Tottel, →OCLC; republished London: […] Robert Triphook, […], and William Sancho, […], 1810, →OCLC

plural Clappers

1. A surname.