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A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)

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First published 1937 (DOST Vol. I).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

Clap, v. [ME. clappe (c 1300), ON. klappa, MDu. and MLG. klappen.]

1. tr. and absol. To pat fondly or amorously. ?1438 Alex. ii. 1969.
I am our ald to clap or kis Maydin that ȝoung and ioly is c1490 Irland Asl. MS. I. 68/16.
I haue committit syn … with the partis & memberis of my bodye, halsand, kissand, clappand, & brasand c1500-c1512 Dunb. Tua Mar. W. 483.
Sum kissis me; sum clappis me Ib. lxxv. 11.
He clappit fast, he kist and chukkit Ib. lxi. 19.
Thocht in the stall I be nocht clappit 1540 Lynd. Sat. 489.
To kis hir & clap hir, sir, be not affeard a1568 Scott iv. 73.
Sum thinkis na schame to clap And kis in opin wyis 1570 Sat. P. xvii. 64.
All Princes warne … to be war to clap ane traytours heid a1605 Montg. Son. xxviii. 4.
A louing dog wes of his maister fane; … His courteous maister clappit him agane 1600 Acts IV. 205/1.
The king layit his hand on his schulder and clappit him 1649 Rec. Old Aberd. II. 36.
Isobel … took the calfe in hir armes and claped the calfe and maid meikell of it

2. To clap (the hands or wings, etc.); intr. to make a noise in this way. c1500 Fyve Bestis 169.
Quhill he clapit durst thair no cok craw. Quhen he had clapit, than crav thai all on raw a1500 Henr. Test. Cress. 479.
I counsall thé … To leir to clap thy clapper to and fro 1513 Doug. ii. xii. 60.
I … thrys, al waist, my handis togidder clappit Ib. vi. Prol. 114.
Phebus crownyt byrd … Clapping his weyngis thrys had crawin cleir a1540 Freiris Berw. 353.
Quhylis with baith his handis he wald clap 1560 Rolland Seven S. 9740.
All the lipper thay clappit and thay cryit a1578 Pitsc. I. 209/6.
The myllaris wyfe clapit hir handis

3. To place, draw, put, etc., smartly. c1475 Wall. viii. 1202.
His leg harnes he clappyt on so clene c1500-c1512 Dunb. Tua Mar. W. 103.
He wil my corse all beclip, & clap to his breisst 1568 Pref. Lyndesay 6.
Until Claudius & Adelbertus war clappit in clois presoun

b. In p.p. Stuck close. 1603 Philotus xxxvii.
His skynne hard clappit to the bane

4. intr. a. To move or close with a clap. 1513 Doug. v. iv. 79.
So clappys the braith in breistis with mony pant Ib. vi. ii. 158.
Hir mowth clappit togiddir, and held hir pes

b. To come suddenly about a place or person. 1567 Sat. P. iii. 68.
To teiche thair feiris to knaw the appoint tyme About the Kingis lugeing for to clap 1569-73 Bann. Mem. 134.
The toun heiring the shot, … incontinent with the laird of Mynto … clapis about the hous c1610 Melville Mem. (1735) 5.
They clapped again about you and kept you two years a captive

c. To spring to a person. 1608 Crim. Trials III. 45.
Thairefter the deponer clappit to my lord, and preist to haif tane him be the brydle renȝeis