clapper

Noun

clapper (plural clappers)

1. One who claps; a person who applauds by clapping the hands.
2. An object so suspended inside a bell that it may hit the bell and cause it to ring; a clanger.
3. A wooden mechanical device used as a scarecrow; bird-scaring rattle, a wind-rattle or a wind-clapper.
   • 1896, Sabine Baring-Gould, Arminell, a social romance, Ch. 37:

     "Sir, sir! folks' tongues go like the clappers in the fields to drive away the blackbirds. A very little wind makes 'em rattle wonderfully."

4. A clapstick (musical instrument).
5. (sewing) A pounding block.

Verb

clapper (third-person singular simple present clappers, present participle clappering, simple past and past participle clappered)

1. (transitive) To ring a bell by pulling a rope attached to the clapper.
   • 1903, Baron Edmund Beckett Grimthorpe, A rudimentary treatise on clocks and watches and bells:

     It is still necessary to warn clergymen against allowing the lazy and pernicious practice of 'clappering,' i.e. tying the bell-rope to the clapper, and pulling it instead of the bell.

2. To make a repetitive clapping sound; to clatter.
3. Of birds, to repeatedly strike the mandibles together.

Noun

clapper (plural clappers)

1. (obsolete) A rabbit burrow.

Conjugation

Derived terms

• clappement