clodhopper

plural clodhoppers

1. footwearA strong shoe for heavy-duty use; a boot.

   ...who had got on his "hill shoes," as he calls a pair of clodhoppers as thick as a ploughman's, and stuck round with nails.

   1830, Margaret Hundy, “First Epistle from Mrs. Margaret Hundy”, in The Lady's Magazine

2. USfootwearAny shoe construed (within a particular context) as ungainly.

   We had to walk slow because of his wooden clod-hoppers, and that was the way I wanted it now

   1959, Claude F. Koch, A Matter of Family

3. slangfootweargovernmentUnited States Navy ankle length work shoes, distinct from dress shoes or combat boots.

   Smiling Jim Mead of New York tries on his GI clodhopper boots. He decided to return them "because we couldn't make any altitude with those aboard."

   1943 August 16, “Senators go global: Five will fly to all fronts”, in LIFE Magazine

   2 more examples

   […] now a book is no greater rarity than bacon and greens in Virginia; and the clodhopper of this country returns from his daily labours to a book […]

   1719, René Le Bossu, translated by Pierre François le Courayer and Peter Anthony Motteux, Monsieur Bossu's Treatise of the Epick Poem, J. Knapton and H. Clements, →OCLC, page 332

   'Nephew Jack,' he cried, looking at me when I was thinking what to say, and finding only emptiness, 'you are a heavy lout, sir; a bumpkin, a clodhopper; and I shall leave you nothing, unless it be my boots to grease.'

   1869, Richard Doddridge Blackmore, “ch. 14”, in Lorna Doone

4. broadlyfootwearTo refer to generally big feet or the foot of a clumsy person.
5. UKA clumsy or foolish person.

   All guess-work exploits shrivel up a good yard, or sometimes two, when brought to the measure, and the champion of the county dwindles into a clumsy clod-hopper.

   1826 August, P.H. Clias, “Gymnastics”, in Blackwood's Magazine, volume XX, number CXV

   Synonyms: oaf

6. derogatoryhistoricalA peasant or yokel (countryperson).

   Near-synonyms: bumpkin, hick

   Synonyms: bumpkin, hick

   1. derogatoryhistoricalobsoleteA farmer or plowman.

      Synonyms: bumpkin, hick

7. Wheatear: any of various passerine birds.

   ...and as the birds then begin to resort to the downs and open commons, the "fallow-chat," "wheat-ear," and "clodhopper," are not unappropriate names.

   1834, Robert Mudie, The Feathered Tribes of the British Islands, volume 1