clapper

See also: Clapper

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈklæpɚ/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æpə(ɹ)

Etymology 1

clap +‎ -er

Noun

clapper (plural clappers)

1. One who claps; a person who applauds by clapping the hands.
3. An object so suspended inside a bell that it may hit the bell and cause it to ring; a clanger or tongue.
4. 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."

5. A clapstick (musical instrument).
6. (sewing) A pounding block.
7. The chattering damsel of a mill.
8. (ice hockey) A slapshot
9. (cinematography) The hinged part of a clapperboard, used to synchronise images and soundtrack, or the clapperboard itself.
10. (slang) A person's tongue.
    • 1683, S. P., The Dutch Rogue, Or, Gusman of Amsterdam, page 238:

      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: […]

Synonyms

• (musical instrument): clapstick, musicstick

Derived terms

• clapperboard
• clapper board
• clapperboy
• clapperclaw
• clapperless
• clapper-loader
• clapper rail
• clapper talk
• clapper-valve
• handclapper
• like the clappers

 

Translations

the tongue of a bell

• Armenian: լեզվակ (hy) (lezvak), զանգալեզվակ (hy) (zangalezvak)
• Breton: bazhoulenn (br) f
• Bulgarian: ези́к (bg) m (ezík)
• Catalan: batall (ca) m
• Czech: srdce zvonu, srdce (cs)
• Dutch: klepel (nl) m, bengel (nl) m
• Esperanto: koro (eo)
• Finnish: kieli (fi)
• French: batail (fr) m, battant (fr) m
• Friulian: batocj m, banducel m
• Galician: badalo (gl) m, batel m
• Gallurese: battaddólu
• German: Klöppel (de) m, Schwengel m

  Alemannic German: Challe m

• Hebrew: עִנְבָּל (he) m (inbal)
• Hungarian: harangnyelv (hu)
• Icelandic: kólfur (is) m
• Irish: boschrann m, teanga cloig f
• Italian: battaglio (it), batacchio (it) m
• Persian: جرس (fa) (jaras)
• Polish: serce (pl) n
• Portuguese: badalo (pt) m
• Romanian: limbă (ro) f
• Russian: язы́к (ко́локола) m (jazýk (kólokola))
• Sardinian: batazu m, batarzu m, batalzu m, batàgliu m, antarzu m, entazu m

  Campidanese: tratallu

  Logudorese: battazu, piròne, limbèddu

• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: palica f

• Spanish: badajo (es) m
• Swedish: kläpp (sv) c
• Venetian: batocio m, batòcolo m, batòc m, batidor m, batibèƚo m
• Walloon: bata (wa) m

rattle

• Bulgarian: кречетало (bg) n (krečetalo)
• Czech: řehtačka (cs) f
• Dutch: ratel (nl) m, klapper (nl) m, klepper (nl) m
• Finnish: räikkä (fi)
• Greek:

  Ancient: κρέμβαλα n pl (krémbala)

• Hungarian: kereplő (hu), szélkelep (hu)
• Maori: ngutu rakiraki, pākōkō
• Russian: трещо́тка (ru) f (treščótka)

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.

Etymology 2

Borrowed from French clapier.

Noun

clapper (plural clappers)

1. (obsolete) A rabbit burrow.
   • 1557 February 13, Thomas Tusser, A Hundreth Good Pointes of Husbandrie., London: […] Richard Tottel, →OCLC; republished London: […] Robert Triphook, […], and William Sancho, […], 1810, →OCLC:

     Poore cunnie so bagged,
     Is soone overlagged
     Plash burrow, set clapper,
     For dog is a snapper

References

“clapper”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

See also

• clapper bridge (has a distinct etymology)

Anagrams

• crapple

French

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

clapper

1. to click (the tongue)

Conjugation

Conjugation of clapper (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	clapper
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	clappant /kla.pɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		clappé /kla.pe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	clappe /klap/	clappes /klap/	clappe /klap/	clappons /kla.pɔ̃/	clappez /kla.pe/	clappent /klap/
	imperfect	clappais /kla.pɛ/	clappais /kla.pɛ/	clappait /kla.pɛ/	clappions /kla.pjɔ̃/	clappiez /kla.pje/	clappaient /kla.pɛ/
	past historic2	clappai /kla.pe/	clappas /kla.pa/	clappa /kla.pa/	clappâmes /kla.pam/	clappâtes /kla.pat/	clappèrent /kla.pɛʁ/
	future	clapperai /kla.pʁe/	clapperas /kla.pʁa/	clappera /kla.pʁa/	clapperons /kla.pʁɔ̃/	clapperez /kla.pʁe/	clapperont /kla.pʁɔ̃/
	conditional	clapperais /kla.pʁɛ/	clapperais /kla.pʁɛ/	clapperait /kla.pʁɛ/	clapperions /kla.pə.ʁjɔ̃/	clapperiez /kla.pə.ʁje/	clapperaient /kla.pʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	clappe /klap/	clappes /klap/	clappe /klap/	clappions /kla.pjɔ̃/	clappiez /kla.pje/	clappent /klap/
	imperfect2	clappasse /kla.pas/	clappasses /kla.pas/	clappât /kla.pa/	clappassions /kla.pa.sjɔ̃/	clappassiez /kla.pa.sje/	clappassent /kla.pas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	clappe /klap/	—	clappons /kla.pɔ̃/	clappez /kla.pe/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Derived terms

• clappement

Further reading

• “clapper”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.