Word.ws English Dictionary

clapperdudgeon

clapperdudgeon noun: a beggar who would apply blood or sores to his body in order to gain attention and attract more alms.

Noun

clapperdudgeon (plural clapperdudgeons)

  1. (UK, archaic, dialectal) A beggar who would apply blood or sores to his body in order to gain attention and attract more alms.

Forms of clapperdudgeon

pluralclapperdudgeons

Origin of clapperdudgeon

From clapper + dudgeon.

Questions about clapperdudgeon

What does clapperdudgeon mean?
Clapperdudgeon means a beggar who would apply blood or sores to his body in order to gain attention and attract more alms.
What part of speech is clapperdudgeon?
Clapperdudgeon is a noun.
What is the plural of clapperdudgeon?
The plural of clapperdudgeon is clapperdudgeons.

Words near clapperdudgeon in the dictionary

  1. clapperboards
  2. clapperclaw
  3. clapperclawed
  4. clapperclawing
  5. clapperclaws
  6. clapperdudgeon
  7. clapperdudgeons
  8. clappered
  9. clappering
  10. clapperless
  11. clappers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: clapperdudgeon (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “clapperdudgeon.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/clapperdudgeon. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.