clapper-clawing

Then did they regard each other for a moment with the bitter aspect of two furious ram-cats on the point of a clapper-clawing.

Washington Irving 2004

There ought to be a moral to an improving tale of this order, I know, but the only one I can think of just now is that it takes a priest to get round a woman; and I always feel inclined to jump on to the table myself when I think of those poor dear creatures sitting on the floor and feeling that awful thing clapper-clawing its way up right under them.

Travels in West Africa 2003

In the dead of the night there was a fearful caterwauling; some grimalkin was uncivil to her; then there was a scramble, then a clapper-clawing; then both parties rolled off the roof and tumbled from a great height among the trees on the hill side.

The Alhambra 2002

In the dead of the night there was a fearful caterwauling; some grimalkin was uncivil to her; then there was a scramble, then a clapper-clawing; then both parties rolled off the roof and tumbled from a great height among the trees on the hill side.

The Alhambra 2002

Then did they regard each other for a moment with the bitter aspect of two furious tom-cats on the point of a clapper-clawing.

Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 8 Charles Herbert Sylvester

Well, Ben once got into a great frolic ashore, and kicked up such a bobbery that the watchman clapped him in limbo for the night; and the justice next morning gave him such a clapper-clawing with his tongue, and bore down upon him so hard with his

Select Temperance Tracts American Tract Society

But Miss Monroe has managed to retain a certain judicial calm in the midst of all the whooping and clapper-clawing, and so she has avoided running amuck, and her magazine has printed the very best of the new poetry and avoided much of the worst.

Prejudices : first series, 1919

He hunches his shoulders, reaches for the pedals with his feet, spreads out his hands and waits for the clapper-clawing to cease.

A Book of Burlesques 1918

Now they are clapper-clawing one another; I’ll go look on.

Act V. Scene IV. Troilus and Cressida 1914

"Vedians to the northward," he continued, "Satronians to the southward, and just you and Ducconius sandwiched in between, clapper-clawing each other."

Andivius Hedulio Adventures of a Roman Nobleman in the Days of the Empire Edward Lucas White 1900