perhapsern.
/pəˈhapsə/, /pəˈrapsə/, /ˈprapsə/, U.S. /pərˈ(h)æpsər/ rare.
1. A person who says ‘perhaps’ with regard to a particular issue (in quot., the attribution of certain characteristics to Satan).
ΚΠ
1909 ‘M. Twain’ Is Shakespeare Dead? ii. 24 The Supposers, the Perhapsers, the Might-Have-Beeners, the Could-Have-Beeners..and all that funny crop of solemn architects who have taken a good solid foundation of five indisputable and unimportant facts and built upon it a Conjectural Satan thirty miles high.
2. Cricket slang. A risky or unintended stroke.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > cricket > batting > [noun] > types of stroke
long ball1744
nip1752
catch1816
no-hit1827
cut1833
short hit1833
draw1836
drive1836
square hit1837
skylarker1839
skyer1840
skyscraper1842
back-cut1845
bum1845
leg sweep1846
slog1846
square cut1850
driver1851
Harrow drive1851
leg slip1852
poke1853
snick1857
snorter1859
leg stroke1860
smite1861
on-drive1862
bump ball1864
rocketer1864
pull1865
grass trimmer1867
late cut1867
off-drive1867
spoon1871
push1873
push stroke1873
smack1875
Harrow drive1877
pull-stroke1880
leg glance1883
gallery-hit1884
boundary-stroke1887
glide1888
sweep1888
boundary1896
hook1896
leg glide1896
backstroke1897
flick1897
hook stroke1897
cover-drive1898
straight drive1898
square drive1900
edger1905
pull-drive1905
slash1906
placing stroke1907
push drive1912
block shot1915
if-shot1920
placing shot1921
cow-shot1922
mow1925
Chinese cut1937
haymaker1954
hoick1954
perhapser1954
air shot1956
steepler1959
mishook1961
swish1963
chop-
1954 J. H. Fingleton Ashes crown Year xxiii. 247 Morris somewhat luckily got Bedser fine for 4... It was what cricketers know as a ‘perhapser’.
1957 D. Stivens Scholarly Mouse 86 Did you ever see such a p'rapser—he pushed a yorker away for four!
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2005; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1909