1594 Churchwardens' Accts. St. Lawrence, Reading in H. T. Ellacombe Bells of Church (1872) ii. 25 Toling y^e bell by y^e clapper rope.

1906 F. Whyte tr. Schillings With Flashlight & Rifle I. 75 Now flit past a number of those very remarkable birds aptly termed clapper-bills.

1901 H. E. Bulwer Gloss. Techn. Terms Bells & Ringing 2 The modern practice is to insert, subsequently to casting, a bolt having a hinge joint, in which the ‘clapper’ is secured. This bolt is called the ‘clapper-bolt’.

1937 Evening News 23 Mar. 13/7 Years ago small boys were engaged for the sum of sixpence a week, to scare birds away from sown fields. The boys were known as ‘clapper boys’.

1950 ‘E. Crispin’ Frequent Hearses i. 45 A clapper-boy self-consciously clapped his instrument together in front of the lens.

1813 A. Wilson Amer. Ornithol. VII. 112 The Clapper Rail, or, as it is generally called, the Mud Hen, soon announces its arrival..by its loud, harsh and incessant cackling.

1835 J. J. Audubon Ornithol. Biogr. III. 33 The Clapper Rail, or Salt-water Marsh-hen.

1870 Amer. Naturalist 3 48 I found the nest of a Clapper-rail (Ralius Crepitans) built in a bush.

1955 Sci. News Let. 3 Sept. 157/1 The clapper rail builds its nest on high spots within salt marshes.

a1884 E. H. Knight Pract. Dict. Mech. Suppl. 199/1 Clapper Stay, a detent for the clapper in a bell.

1878 P. H. Lawrence tr. B. von Cotta Rocks Classified (new ed.) 89 A small concretion is found loose in the hollow interior of the larger one, so as to rattle in it when shaken (clapper-stones).

1874 E. H. Knight Pract. Dict. Mech. Clapper-valve.

1793 R. Polwhele Hist. Devonshire II. 277 Clapper-bridge, partly in Honiton and partly in Combe-Raleigh, is chiefly built of flint stone.

1852 Notes & Queries 1st Ser. VI. 542 We have here [i.e. at Edburton, Sussex] a lane called Clappers, so named from its ‘clapper’, i.e. a raised footpath at side, to keep foot-passengers out of the water.

1887 W. D. Parish & W. F. Shaw Dict. Kentish Dial.

1889 J. L. W. Page Explor. Dartmoor iii. 53 Piers of undressed granite blocks support two or more superincumbent slabs, of width sufficient for the passage of a vehicle..and varying in length according to the breadth of the river. A specimen easily accessible is that which spans the East Dart at Postbridge... Other specimens of these ‘clapper’ bridges..exist on the Moor.

1908 W. Johnson Folk Memory 67 Certain ‘clapper’ bridges, crossing the streams of Exmoor and Dartmoor, are often assigned to the Bronze Age, but they are more probably relics of pack-horse days.

1966 New Statesman 17 June 879/1 There was a stone clapper-bridge beside the other one.

1872 H. T. Ellacombe Bells of Church i. 25 Bells are sometimes chimed by..‘clocking’ or ‘clappering’ them; that is by hitching the rope round the flight or tail of the clapper, so as to pull it athwart against the side of the bell.

1882 Standard 27 Mar. 6/7 More bells have been cracked from being ‘clappered’ than from any other cause.

1845 S. Judd Margaret i. xvii. 163 The house jarred and creaked,..loose boards on the roof clappered and rattled.

1884 F. M. Crawford Rom. Singer (ed. 2) I. 230 The clattering clappering click of the castanets.

1526 in House & Robus Hist. Great Dunmow Parish Church (1926) 25 Item for claperynge of iij letell bells for ye canepe.

1874 E. Beckett Rudim. Treat. Clocks (ed. 6) 365 The lazy and pernicious practice of ‘clappering’, i.e. tying the bell-rope to the clapper, and pulling it instead of the bell.

1891 Pall Mall Gaz. 7 Dec. 6/1 He chatters in imitation of the ‘clappering’ of a stork.

1904 C. L. Marson Folk Songs Somerset p. xi The clapperings of the steam-binder.