clappering

Verb

clapper (third-person singular simple present clappers, present participle clappering, simple past and past participle clappered)

1. (transitive) To ring a bell by pulling a rope attached to the clapper.
   • It is still necessary to warn clergymen against allowing the lazy and pernicious practice of 'clappering,' i.e. tying the bell-rope to the clapper, and pulling it instead of the bell.1903, Baron Edmund Beckett Grimthorpe, A rudimentary treatise on clocks and watches and bells
2. To make a repetitive clapping sound; to clatter.
3. Of birds, to make such a noise by repeatedly striking the mandibles together.
   • [W]hile he was away Hinzelmann began suddenly to clapper in the ladies' chamber like a stork, and then said, "Maid Anne, you much go look for your things to-day in the mill-stream."1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume II, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 53

See all 14 meanings of clapper