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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. One who applauds.
  2. n. The tongue of a bell.
  3. n. Slang The tongue of a garrulous person.
  4. n. Two flat pieces of wood held between the fingers and struck together rhythmically.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. Something which claps or strikes with a loud, sharp noise. Specifically— The tongue of a bell.
  2. n. The cover of a clack-dish.
  3. n. The piece of wood or metal which strikes the hopper of a mill.
  4. n. In medieval churches, a wooden rattle used as a summons to prayers on the last three days of Holy Week, when it was customary for the church bells to remain silent. Also called clap.
  5. n. A clack or windmill for frightening birds.
  6. n. plural Pieces of wood or bone to be held between the fingers and struck together rhythmically; the bones.
  7. n. The knocker of a door.
  8. n. One who claps, especially one who applauds by clapping the hands.
  9. n. A clack-valve.
  10. n. plural A pair of iron plates used to hold fine steel springs while being hardened.
  11. n. A plank laid across a running stream as a substitute for a bridge.
  12. n. plural Warrenpales or -walls.
  13. n. The tongue.
  14. To clap; make a clattering noise.
  15. n. See claper.
  16. n. In botany, the auricle in hepatics. See auricle, 3 .

Wiktionary

  1. n. An object so suspended inside a bell that it may hit the bell and cause it to ring.
  2. n. A wooden mechanical device used as a scarecrow; bird-scaring rattle, a wind-rattle or a wind-clapper.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. A person who claps.
  2. n. That which strikes or claps, as the tongue of a bell, or the piece of wood that strikes a mill hopper, etc. See Illust. of Bell.
  3. n. A rabbit burrow.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. someone who applauds
  2. n. metal striker that hangs inside a bell and makes a sound by hitting the side
  3. n. a mobile mass of muscular tissue covered with mucous membrane and located in the oral cavity

Examples

Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘clapper’.

Comments

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  • bilby
    O Columbine, open your folded wrapper,
    Where two twin turtledoves dwell!
    O Cuckoo pint, toll me the purple clapper
    That hangs in your clear green bell!

    - John Ingelow, 'Seven Times One'. Nov 1, 2008

  • reesetee In glassmaking, a tool consisting of two rectangular pieces of wood joined at one end by a leather hinge. An aperture in one of the pieces of wood holds the stem of a goblet or wine glass while it is being made. The clapper is also used to squeeze a blob of glass to form the foot. Nov 8, 2007

  • npydyuan Perrrrhaaaaaps.... But you can't prove a thing! Oct 10, 2007

  • rocksinmypockets The connection you draw, npydyuan, between this word and rabbits is interesting to me on a personal note. For I am called Clapper, and rabbits have played some role in my life from birth up to the present. Perhaps you had a particular audience in mind for this post? Oct 10, 2007

  • reesetee Right! Sure does sound cozy. Sep 19, 2007

  • npydyuan Yup.... I wouldn't mind having a "court walled about, and full of nests" of my own, sometimes to snuggle into. Sep 18, 2007

  • reesetee A bunny house? Sep 18, 2007

  • npydyuan Randle Cotgrave’s "A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues of 1611." He says clapier is French for a “clapper of conies�? (coney being the usual word at the time for an adult rabbit), “a heap of stones &c., whereinto they retire themselves; or (as our clapper), a court walled about, and full of nests or boards, or stones, for tame conies. Sep 18, 2007

‘clapper’ has been looked up 859 times, loved by 1 person, added to 6 lists, commented on 8 times, and has a Scrabble score of 13.