wapper

present singular third person wappers · participle present wappering · participle past wappered · past wappered

1. dialectalobsoletetransitiveTo exhaust; to tire out.

   At first he felt somewhat wappered.

   1967, Ivor John Carnegie Brown, A Ring of Words, page 97

   5 more examples

   this is it, That makes the wapper'd widow wed again;

   1623, William Shakespeare, The Life of Tymon of Athens

   Emery Ann declared to me, privately, after I had said in general council that I felt it impossible, that she was "really wappered out with mountains; […]"

   1876, Adeline Dutton Train Whitney, Sights and Insights: Patience Strong's Story of Over the Way, page 318

   Marry, 'tis nigh on forty mile, I warrant. Thou'll not see Stratford to-night, sir; thy horse is wappered out, and that I plainly see."

   1899, Joseph Arthur Gibbs, A Cotswold Village, page 258

   They monks be weedy batch! Make un wappered and whelmed! Make un moil! '

   1962, Prudence Andrew, A Question of Choice, page 20

   "I be wappered," Catherine declared as she flung herself down upon the bed and assumed a pose that denoted complete exhaustion.

   2010, Kathy Lynn Emerson, Face Down upon an Herbal

2. intransitiveTo move weakly or tremulously; to flag.

   She was wappering and seemed shot.

   1930, The Cornhill Magazine, page 638

   4 more examples

   But still he stode, his face to set awrye, And wappering turnid vp his white of eye.

   1610, John Higgins, The Mirour for Magistrates

   She was toothlesse, chap-falne, hollow-eyed, and wappering withall, her haire sluttishly hanging about her eares, unkempt, and as greazie as it was knotty;

   1634, Mateo Alemán, The Rogve: Or, The Life of Gvzman de Alfarache

   Miss Mansfield abandons her salt furrow and in two stanzas lies flapping and wappering.

   1912 March 28, “Present-Day Criticism”, in The New Age, volume 10, number 22, page 519

   his blue and white dotted tarentaal scarf wappering in the wind.

   2003, Patrick Mynhardt, Boy from Bethulie: An Autobiography, page 122

plural wappers

1. A mischievous sprite.

   The Wapper had, just for the fun of it, put an iron pot under the hat.

   2022, William Elliot Griffis, Belgian Fairy Tales

   2 more examples

   "And a wapper, too; when I first saw it I thought it was a rabbit, and now it's bigger than a deer, and still a mile or two off," said Joe.

   1863, John Beauchamp Jones, Wild Western Scenes, page 40

   Presently the good woman discovered to her horror that the foundling was swelling and becoming heavy, and when she put it down the Wapper assumed his own shape and ran off shrieking.

   2022, Edward Neville Vose, The Spell of Flanders