Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Same as back-scratcher, 2.
  • To beat, claw, and scratch; thrash; drub.
  • To scold; abuse with the tongue; revile.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To fight and scratch.
  • transitive verb To abuse with the tongue; to revile; to scold.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb obsolete To fight and scratch.
  • verb obsolete To abuse with words; to revile; to scold.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb use foul or abusive language towards
  • verb claw with the nails

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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Examples

  • Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to work larboard and clapperclaw into my everyday conversation.

    Off-Topic Thursday: Eat Your Words Matthew Guerrieri 2007

  • Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to work larboard and clapperclaw into my everyday conversation.

    Archive 2007-11-01 Matthew Guerrieri 2007

  • I see thou hast played me a scurvy trick, thou villainous fellow, cried the angry devil; at last I am fully resolved even to make an end of the business betwixt thee and myself about the ground, and these shall be the terms: we will clapperclaw each other, and whoever of us two shall first cry Hold, shall quit his share of the field, which shall wholly belong to the conqueror.

    Five books of the lives, heroic deeds and sayings of Gargantua and his son Pantagruel 2002

  • I see thou hast played me a scurvy trick, thou villainous fellow, cried the angry devil; at last I am fully resolved even to make an end of the business betwixt thee and myself about the ground, and these shall be the terms: we will clapperclaw each other, and whoever of us two shall first cry Hold, shall quit his share of the field, which shall wholly belong to the conqueror.

    Five books of the lives, heroic deeds and sayings of Gargantua and his son Pantagruel 2002

  • For all these same birds did so peck, clapperclaw, and maul one another all that time, that there was the devil and all to do, and the island was in a fair way of being left without inhabitants.

    Five books of the lives, heroic deeds and sayings of Gargantua and his son Pantagruel 2002

  • For all these same birds did so peck, clapperclaw, and maul one another all that time, that there was the devil and all to do, and the island was in a fair way of being left without inhabitants.

    Five books of the lives, heroic deeds and sayings of Gargantua and his son Pantagruel 2002

  • In this case, Shingle's bit of blood swerves, we may assume--Ratoon rides at him--Shingle fairly turns tail, and starts out at full speed, Ratoon thundering in his rear, with out -- stretched arm; and it does happen, I am assured, that the hot pursuit often continues for a mile, before the desired clapperclaw is obtained.

    Tom Cringle's Log Michael Scott 1812

  • Now these rival rogues will clapperclaw one another, and I shall have the sport of it.

    The works of John Dryden, $c now first collected in eighteen volumes. $p Volume 06 John Dryden 1665

  • I see thou hast played me a scurvy trick, thou villainous fellow, cried the angry devil; at last I am fully resolved even to make an end of the business betwixt thee and myself about the ground, and these shall be the terms: we will clapperclaw each other, and whoever of us two shall first cry Hold, shall quit his share of the field, which shall wholly belong to the conqueror.

    Gargantua and Pantagruel, Illustrated, Book 4 Fran��ois Rabelais 1518

  • For all these same birds did so peck, clapperclaw, and maul one another all that time, that there was the devil and all to do, and the island was in a fair way of being left without inhabitants.

    Gargantua and Pantagruel, Illustrated, Book 5 Fran��ois Rabelais 1518

Comments

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  • For Clapperclaw is in the grappling of the words upon one another in all the modes of versification. (from Jubilate Agno by Christopher Smart)

    December 31, 2007

  • I'd like to see more example sentences with this most excellent of verbs.

    August 25, 2009

  • But sooth the other was a doughty sparhawk

    To clapperclaw him well; and both of them

    Fell in the middle of the boiling pond.

    --Dante Alighieri‎, The Divine Comedy, translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1909, p. 133

    August 25, 2009

  • The BBC broadcast a play called "Clapperclaw", by Jack Shepherd, as part of its 'Play for Today' strand March 6, 1981.

    March 12, 2012

  • When Gossip begins to flap her jaw

    The carrion crones will snap and caw

    And this will incite

    A backbiting blight,

    An orgy of spite and clapperclaw.

    October 1, 2017