clappety

alternative clappedy · alternative clappity

1. not comparableCharacterised by clapped or clapping sounds; clappy.

   […] and she'd got knockety hands, and clappety feet, and beadly eyes; and she was so straggle-toothed that you could see right down her gullet into the fires of hell.

   1935, William Makepeace Thackeray, The Cornhill Magazine, volume 151, page 114

   5 more examples

   At each landing, she stopped, looked and listened to the clappety clapp of the ample Miss Barry clanking her miserable way from step to step, until at long last they reached terra firma and had quite a time getting inside the building.

   1949, The Corset and Underwear Review, volume 73, page 189

   It seemed like I had only been asleep a short while, dreaming of Indians, when suddenly all the Indians came to life, clappety bang, with the clatter of hooves on the frozen ground.

   1968, Forest & Outdoors and Rod & Gun, volumes 70-71, page 17

   Your Riverbottom Nigras lived in little shotgun houses with a clappety porch and a swept dirt yard and a flowerbed neat as a flowered bonnet, bordered with green and amber bottles or fruitjars.

   1999, William Goyen, The House of Breath, page 25

   Wiped himself with her Levi's before zipping up, then used the jeans to dam the blood so it wouldn't run into the thoroughfare just yet. Flicked the clappety roll up. Ducked under it macho-style, then ambled to the Range Rover, sucked in snot, and spat it out while looking first left then right like a badass B-movie bandito—[…]

   2003, Bruce Wagner, Still Holding, page 316

   And I wonder which one would be best, then I know, the Cyclone, with its rails and wooden ties snaking over itself like a shiny sawmill, and its car of boards and splinters; and I want to get into the rickety little Cyclone car and ride up those clappety oak planks to the very top.

   2020, Bonnie Proudfoot, Goshen Road

alternative clappedy · alternative clappity

1. A clapping sound.

   Clappety, clappety, tap—the foxtrot reminded him of ragtime.

   2006, Anna Harwell Celenza, Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue

   1 more example

   Clappety-clappety-clappety clap, / We're having lots of fun. / Clappety-clappety-clappety clap. / Stop! Little hands, you're done.

   1975, Jeanne M. Machado, Early Childhood Experiences in Language Arts, page 84