Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Plural form of
claptrap .
Etymologies
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Examples
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A play of this class, which, in the midst of all its absurdities and claptraps, had much of good in it, was called
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Does he seek popularity by claptraps or other arts?
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It has recollections with it that must always be dear to a gallant nation; it has certain claptraps in its vocabulary that can never fail to inflame a vain, restless, grasping, disappointed one.
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Julius Benedict remarks that 'at this period mechanical dexterity, musical claptraps, skips from one part of the piano to another, endless shakes and arpeggios, were the order of the day.'
Story-Lives of Great Musicians Francis Jameson Rowbotham
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A few months since every bachelor hummed or whistled "_C'est l'amour_," and the French, to return the compliment, have made our "Robin Adair," one of the claptraps of the music of their
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 12, No. 330, September 6, 1828 Various
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But when your approval of these benevolent claptraps is brought to such a practical test as the marriage of your sister to a workman, you see clearly enough that they do not establish the suitability of personal intercourse between members of different classes.
The Irrational Knot Being the Second Novel of His Nonage George Bernard Shaw 1903
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Presently he began to weave a tale, sorry enough, with all the ancient claptraps and rusted platitudes.
The Ragged Edge Harold MacGrath 1901
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They had to resort to the claptraps of fashion-plates and other engravings, in the hope of forcing an immediate sale upon persons who, caring for fashion-plates, did not care for the literary character of the enterprise.
If, Yes and Perhaps Four Possibilities and Six Exaggerations with Some Bits of Fact Edward Everett Hale 1865
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The audience, however, are warned not to expect claptraps, or personal satire.
A Book of the Play Studies and Illustrations of Histrionic Story, Life, and Character Dutton Cook 1856
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You've got your head full of claptraps and tantrums till you haven't a grain of sense belonging to you.
The American Senator Anthony Trollope 1848
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