Definition of "clapper"

clapper¹

/ˈklæpɚ/

noun
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 or tongue.
3. A wooden mechanical device used as a scarecrow; bird-scaring rattle, a wind-rattle or a wind-clapper.
  Quotations
  "Sir, sir! folks' tongues go like the clappers in the fields to drive away the blackbirds. A very little wind makes 'em rattle wonderfully."
  1896, Sabine Baring-Gould, Arminell, a social romance, Ch. 37
4. A clapstick (musical instrument).
5. (sewing) A pounding block.
6. The chattering damsel of a mill.
7. (ice hockey) A slapshot
8. (cinematography) The hinged part of a clapperboard, used to synchronise images and soundtrack, or the clapperboard itself.
9. (slang) A person's tongue.
  Quotations
  Emilia 'tis true could use her clapper with great Dexterity, but he had the same advantages against her, which this had against him; Olimpia 's Tongue was also well hung but she ever had reason on her side, which he with reason could never either blame or oppose, and by both these came his Fortune: […]
  1683, S. P., The Dutch Rogue, Or, Gusman of Amsterdam, page 238
verb
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.
  Quotations
  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.
  1903, Baron Edmund Beckett Grimthorpe, A rudimentary treatise on clocks and watches and bells
2. To make a repetitive clapping sound; to clatter.
3. Of birds, to repeatedly strike the mandibles together.

clapper²

/ˈklæpɚ/

noun
plural clappers
1. (obsolete) A rabbit burrow.
  Quotations
  Poore cunnie so bagged, Is soone overlagged Plash burrow, set clapper, For dog is a snapper
  1557 February 13, Thomas Tusser, A Hundreth Good Pointes of Husbandrie., London: […] Richard Tottel; republished London: Reprinted for Robert Triphook, […], and William Sancho, […], 1810,

Definition of "clapper"

clapper1

noun

Quotations

Quotations

verb

Quotations

clapper2

noun

Quotations

clapper¹

clapper²