clap 
There rose a noise of striking clocks, 
And feet that ran, ami floors that rln/it. 
T, i, mi: mi. Hat Hivaiii. 'Die Revival. 
3. To applaud, as by clapping the hands to- 
jrotlior. 4f. To chatter; prattle or prate con- 
tinually <>r noisily. 
This monk, he <-lni>itHh loude. 
Chaucer, 1'rol. to Nun's I'riest's Tale, I. If). 
5. To begin or set to work with alacrity and 
briskness. 
1027 
fessions are often made by ignorant or irre- 
sponsible persons, a quack. [Now only vulgar.] 
H.- WHO the ilrst flaii-doctor that I met with in history. 
No. _>;< i 
clape (klap), n. [Origin obscure.] The flicker 
or golden-winged woodpecker, Colaptes auratux. 
[Local, U. 8.] 
Clapert, [ME., later written clapper, Sc. 
clitplii-rx; < OF. rlnpier, F. dopier (ML. claperi- 
im, i-ln iii-riii. cliijii-n nm), a rabbit-burrow, < rlnpir, 
Truly, sir, I would desire you to ,-/,,/, into jour prayers; S(|Uat . origin uncertain.] A rabbit-burrow, 
for, I,ok you, the warrants come. Khak.. M. fur M., ,t . :i. /.,_,,,, /;,,.,.,!. 140 5. 
clapmatch (klap'mach), w. A fishermen's name 
fur an olil female seal. 
The younger of both sexes [of sea-lions], together with 
the aiopnMUMW, eroak hoarsely, or send forth sonncU like 
the bleating of sheep or the harking of dogs. 
C. M. XcaiiiiHim, Marine Mammals, p. 130. 
clap-net (klap'net), n. A net in hinged sec- 
tions, made to fold quickly upon itself by the 
pulling of a string, much used by the bird- 
catchers who supply the London market. 
clappet, '' and . An obsolete form of c//< J . 
clappedepouch (klap'e-de-pouch), n. A name 
of the shepherd's-purse, Cn/mi-lln linrtia-i>a#toris, 
in allusion to its little pouches hung out as it 
were by the wayside, as the begging lepers of 
old times extended a pouch at the end of a pole 
and called attention to it by a clapper or bell. 
clapper 1 (klap'er), M. [< ME. clapper, r/.//r, 
cli-/irr (== I), klapper = MHG. kl<i)i]-r. klrpi>n; 
a chatterer, blabber (> G. klajrper), = M-HG. 
klepfer, etc.); < ctap 1 , t'., + -cri.J 1. Something 
which claps or strikes with a loud, sharp noise. 
Specifically (a) The tongue of a bell. 
Like the rude clapper of a crazed bell. 
/;. Jonton, Case is Altered, v. 3. 
(i>) The cover of a clack-dish, (c) The piece of wood or 
metal which strikes the hopper of a mill, (d) In medieval 
churches, a wooden rattle used as a summons to prayers 
on the last three days of Holy Week, when it was custom- 
ary for the church bells to remain silent. Also called clap. 
F. Q. Lee. (e) A clack or windmill for frightening birds. 
They kill not vipers, but scarre them away with Clap- 
pers from their Balsame-trees. 
Purchai, Pilgrimage, p. 233. 
claret 
clap-sill (klap'sil), n. In hydraulic engin., a 
miter-sill: tin 1 liottinii part of the frame on 
which lock-gates slint. Also .-ailed lix-k-xill. 
clap-stick (klai/stik), . A kind of wooden 
rattle or clapper used fur raising an alarm; a 
watchman's rattle. 
He was not disturbed . . . by th>- watetnnen's rappers 
" Srattay, HM Boeur, L 
clap 1 (klap), . [< ME. cla/>, ctnppe = D. klnp 
= LG. klii/> (> <J. klu/ip) = led.' Sw. klapp = 
Dan. kliii> = olNJ. kln/,li. MIX ;./,/,/,</, G. kluff: 
a striking with a noise; from the verb.] 1. A 
sudden sharp sound produced by a collision; 
a bang ; a slap ; a slam. 
Give the door such a clap as you go out as will shake the 
whole room. 
Su'ift, Advice to Servants, (Jeneral Pireetions. 
Hence 2. A burst or peal, as of thunder. 
Horrible claps of thunder, and flashes of lightning, 
voices and earthquakes. llakeunll. Apology. 
3. A striking together, as of the hands or of a 
bird's wings ; especially, a striking of the hands 
together, to express applause. 
Men, witli wives, and boys, 
Whose shouts and daps out-voice the deep-mouth d sea. 
Shak., Hell. V., v.(cho.). 
4. A clapping; applause expressed by clap- 
ping. [Now colloq.] 
He sometimes lets the audience begin the dap of them- 
selves, ami at the conclusion of their applause ratifies it 
with a single thwack. Addison, Trunkmaker at the Play. 
He was saluted, on his first appearance, with a general 
dap ; by which I perceived that he was one of those spoil- 
ed actors in whom the pit pardons everything. 
Smollett, tr. of Oil Bias, vil. 6. 
5t- Noise of any kind, especially idle chatter. 
Stynt thi dappe. Chaucer, Prol. to Miller's Tale, 1. 36. 
His lewde [Ignorant] dappe, of which I sett no prys. 
Booke of Precedence (E. E. T. 8.), I. 106. 
6. A sudden blow, motion, or act : generally in 
the phrase at a clap (which see, below). 7. A 
touch or pat with the open hand : as, he put 
her off with a kiss and a clap. [Scotch and 
New England.] 8. In falconry, the nether 
part of the beak of a hawk. E. Phillips, 1706. 
9. Same as clapper 1 , 1 (d) At a clap, at one 
blow ; all at once ; suddenly. 
What, fifty of my followers at a dap ! Shak., Lear, 1. 4. 
They are for hazarding all for God at a clap, and I am 
for taking all advantage to secure my life and estate. 
Bunt/an, Pilgrim's Progress, p. 165. 
Clap 2 (klap), n. [Cf. D. klapoor, < OF. clapoir, 
a venereal sore.] Gonorrhea. 
clap 2 (klap), v. t. [< clap*, .] To infect with 
venereal poison. [Rare.] 
clapboard (klap'bord; colloq. klab'ord), n. 
[Early mod. E. also 'clawboard, cloboard "; appar. 
< clapi- + board, but perhaps orig. < claw (with 
ref. to clenching), or elore (pp. of cleave 2 , split), 
+ board.'] 1. Along thin board, usually about 
6 or 8 inches wide, used for covering the out- 
side of a wooden building. Clapboards are nailed 
on with edges lapping clinker-fashion, as a weather-board- 
Ing. Also called, collectively, sheathing. 
M'. Oldham had a small house near the weir at Water- 
town, made all of clapboards, burned August, 1632. 
Winthrop, Journal, I. 87. 
Richard Longe was fined, in 1636, for riving divers good 
trees into clapltoards. Massachusetts Records, 1. 163. 
We heard the loosened clapboards tost, 
The board-nails snapping in the frost. 
If hittier, Snow-Bound. 
2. A roofing-board about 4 feet long by 8 inches 
wide, and thicker on one edge than on the oth- 
er, rived from a log by splitting it from the cen- 
ter outward. Also called shake. [U. S.] 
The broad side gable, shaded by its rude awning of clap- 
boards. 0. W. Cable, Old Creole Days, p. 85. 
3. A stave for casks. [Eng.] 
clapboard (klap'bord ; colloq. klab'ord), v. t. 
[< clapboard, n.~] ' To cover or sheathe with 
clapboards, as a house. [U. S.] 
A plain clapboarded structure of small size. 
The Century, XXVIII. 11. 
clap-bread (klap'bred), n. A kind of oatmeal 
cake rolled out thin and baked hard. Also clap- 
cuke. Halliwell. 
The great rack of clap-bread hung overhead, and Bell 
Hobson's preference of this kind of oat-cake over the leav- 
cned and partly sour kind used in Yorkshire was another 
source of her unpopularity. 
ilrs. Gaskell, Sylvia's Lovers, iv. 
clap-dish (klap'dish), n. Same as clack-ilixh. 
clap-doctor (klap 'dok* tor), n. A physician 
who undertakes the cure of venereal diseases ; 
hence, formerly, from the fact that such pro- 
A clapper clapping in a garth, 
To scare the fowl from fruit. 
flnc 
Princess, ii. 
,') pi. Pieces of wood or bone to be held between the 
ingers and struck together rhythmically ; the bones. (y) 
The knocker of a door. Minsheu, 1617. 
2. One who claps, especially one who applauds 
by clapping the hands. 3. A clack-valve. 4. 
pi. A pair of iron plates used to hold fine steel 
springs while being hardened. 5. [Cf. clam 1 , 
n., 2.J A plank laid across a running stream 
as a substitute for a bridge. 6t. pi. Warren- 
pales or -walls. Coles, 1717. 7. The tongue. 
Brockett. [Prov. Eng.] Beggar's clapper. See 
clack-dvth and cliclcet. 
Clapper 1 (klap'er), v. i. [< clapper^, n.] To 
clap ; make a clattering noise. [Rare.] 
Loose boards on the roof clappered and rattled. 
5. Judd, Margaret, i. 17. 
clapper 2 t, See eloper. 
clapper-bill (klap'er-bil), n. A name of the 
open-beaked storks, of the genus Antatomus 
(which see). Also called shell-eater. 
clapperclaw (klap'er-kla), v. t. [< ctap 1 + 
claw. Cf. caperclaw.'] 1. To beat, claw, and 
scratch; thrash; drub. 
They are danper-dawing one another ; I'll go look on. 
Shak., T. and C., v. 4. 
2. To scold ; abuse with the tongue ; revile. 
Have always been at daggers-drawing 
And one another dapper-damng. 
S. Butler, Hudibras, ii. 
clapperclaw (klap'er-kla), n. [< clapperclaw, 
c.J Same as back-scratclier, 2. 
clapperdudgeont (klap ' er-duj ' on), . [Also 
clapperdoyeon ; appar. < clapper^, clap 1 , + dud- 
geon, a dagger, or a handle.] A beggar. 
It is but the part of a dapperdudgeon, to strike a man 
in the street Greene, George-a-Greene. 
A Clapperdogeon is in English a Begger borne ; some call 
him a Pallyard. 
Deleter, Bellman of London (ed. 1608), sig. C, 3. 
clappering (klap'er-ing), n. [< clapper* + -ingi.] 
Pulling the clapper instead of the bell. 
The lazy and pernicious practice of dapperinq, i. e., ty- 
ing the bell rope to the clapper, and pulling it instead of 
the bell. Sir E. Beckett, Clocks and Watches, p. 379. 
clapper-stay (klap'er-sta),n. A device for muf- 
fling large bells. 
clapper-valve (klap'er-valv), n. In a steam- 
engine, a valve suspended from a hinge, and 
working alternately on two seats ; a clack-valve. 
It is sometimes a disk vibrating between two 
seats. 
elapse, i'. and n. A dialectal form of clasp. 
claptrap (klap'trap), n.undo. I. ". It. A con- 
trivance for clapping in theaters. 2. Figura- 
tively, an art i lice or (lev ice to elicit applause or 
gain popularity; deceptive show or pretense. 
II.U actor IThonms r,,hbam|, . . . when aj.pioa.hing a 
claptrap, gives such note, of preparation that they must in- 
deed be barren spectators who do n"t perceive that then 
is something c ing. Quoted in A. and Q., "th ser., II. 31H. 
He played to the galleries, and indulged them of course 
with an endless succession of clap-traps. 
Brougham, Sheridan. 
Trashy books which owe their circulation to advertis- 
ing skill or to pretentious dap t. 
Stubbs, Medieval and Modern Hist., p. 62. 
II. a. Designing or designed merely to win 
approval or catch applause. 
The unworthy arts of the clan-trap mob-orator. 
A. K. H. Boyd, Country Parson, I. 
Read election speeches and observe how votes an gained 
by clap-trap appeals to senseless prejudices. 
H. Spencer, Study of Sociol., p. 289. 
claque (klak), n. [P., < claquer, clap, applaud, 
< D. klakk<-n, clap, clack: see clack."] 1. In the- 
aters, a set of men, called claqueurs, distribut- 
ed through the audience, and hired to applaud 
the piece or the actors ; the system of paid ap- 
plause. This method of aiding the success of public per- 
formances Is very ancient ; but it first became a perma- 
nent system, openly organized and controlled by the cla- 
queurs themselves, in Paris at the beginning of the nine- 
teenth, century. 
The dairue at the Grand Opera is very select. I would 
n't go with the dame on the boulevards. 
V. llugo, lea Miserables, St. Denii (trans.), vi. 2. 
Hence 2. Any band of admirers applauding 
and praising from interested motives. 
claqueur (kla-ker'), n. [F., < claquer, applaud: 
see c,/<i i/ KC.'] A member of the claque. Each 
claqueur has a special r61e allotted to him. Thus, the 
i n- a i- laughs at the comic sallies ; the pleureur weeps at 
pathetic passages ; the bijtseur calls "encore ! " and so on ; 
and all together clap their hands and applaud upon occa- 
sion. The performances of the claque are directed by a 
leader. 
We will go to the Opera. We will go in with the da- 
irueurs. V. Hugo, Les Miserable*, St. Denis (trans.), vL 2. 
clarabella (klar-a-bel'a), . [Also daribella; 
< L. clarus, clear, + bettus, beautiful : see clear, 
a., and beau, belle."] An organ-stop having open 
wooden pipes which give a soft, sweet tone, re- 
sembling the stopped diapason and the eight- 
foot bourdon. 
claravoyantt, An obsolete form of clairvoy- 
ant. 
Clare (klar), n. A nun of the order of St. Clare. 
Poor Clares, see ciarise. 
Clare constat (kla're kon'stat). [L. : dare, 
clearly, (clarus, clear ; cons tat, 3d pers. sing. pres. 
ind. of constare, stand together, be established: 
see clear, a., and constant."] Literally, it is clear- 
ly established Precept of dare constat, in Scots 
laic, a deed executed by a subject superior, for the pur- 
pose of completing the title of his vassal's heir to the lands 
field by the deceased vassal. 
clarence (klar'ens), n. [From Clarence, a prop- 
er name. ] A close four-wheeled carriage, with 
a curved glass front and inside seats for two or 
four persons. 
Clarenceuz, n. Same as Clarencieux. 
Clarencieux (klar'en-su), w. [Said to be so 
called from the Duke of Clarence, son of Edward 
III., who first held the office.] In Great Brit- 
ain, the title of the second king-at-arms, rank- 
ing after Garter king-at-arms. His province com- 
prises that part of England south of the river Trent, and 
lie is hence sometimes called Surrey (southern king). See 
king-at-arnu, iiarter, and Xorroy. 
clarendon (klar'en-don), n. [< Clarendon, a 
proper name.] A condensed form of printing- 
type, like Roman in outline, but with thickened 
lines. 
This line is printed in clarendon. 
clarenert, . See clarioner. 
Clarenine (klar'e-nin), . [< Clarene (see def.) 
+ -inc 1 .] One of a reformed congregation of 
Franciscans founded in 1302 by Angelo di Car- 
dona, and named from a stream called the 
Clarene, on which the first monastery was es- 
tablished, near Ancona. They were reunited 
with the Franciscans in 1510. 
clare-ohscure (klar'ob-skur'), n. Same ascfcur- 
obscure, chiaroscuro. 
claret (klar'et), a. and . [< ME. claret, cleret 
(= MLG. MHG. G. Mare t = Sp. Pg. clarete = It. 
