Word.ws English Dictionary

strapper

strapper noun: a large, strong, robust person (usually a man).

Noun

strapper (plural strappers)

  1. A large, strong, robust person (usually a man).
  2. A person who works with straps, as on leather goods.
  3. One who straps horses; now, specifically, someone employed to attend and groom racehorses.
    • I was, however, but a very brief period employed as a strapper, as from the care and pains which I took in cleaning and watering the horses they soon mended in their jaded, worn-out appearance, for they were regularly fed, because I was regularly sober, a state, I have been informed, in which my...1835, The Veterinarian: A Monthly Journal of Veterinary Science
    • On large establishments a head-man superintends the strappers, and the general management of the horses.1855, John Stewart, The Stable Book
  4. (archaic) A cow which yields a small amount of milk.
    • “Nabla, Nabla,” says he, “them was the true words of Father Luke's when he said them would lend him a strapper would be repaid twofold. Here comes our own strapper back to us in company with a brave lump of a bullockeen. Faith,” says he, “Father Luke, you're the man for my money, and if ever ye...1905, Lippincott's Monthly Magazine: A Popular Journal of General Literature
    Synonyms:
    duffer
  5. A wire that joins two light switches so that a light can be turned off or on from either switch.

Examples of strapper in a sentence

  • A boy was called a strapper because when you cleaned and dressed a horse properly, you had a nice flat towel, and you used to hit them on all the muscles.2011, Jan Wositzky, Me & Phar Lap: The Remarkable Life of Tommy Woodcock:
  • “Nabla, Nabla,” says he, “them was the true words of Father Luke's when he said them would lend him a strapper would be repaid twofold.1905, Lippincott's Monthly Magazine: A Popular Journal of General Literature:

Synonyms of strapper

Forms of strapper

pluralstrappers

Origin of strapper

From strap + -er, principally strap + -er (agent noun suffix). The sense referring to a poorly producing milk cow (from strap + -er) came from a dialectal sense of the verb strap as a troponym of milk: not even the most skilful milking action could coax enough milk from the udder.

Words formed from strapper

Words that rhyme with strapper

6 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about strapper

What does strapper mean?
Strapper means a large, strong, robust person (usually a man).
How do you use strapper in a sentence?
A boy was called a strapper because when you cleaned and dressed a horse properly, you had a nice flat towel, and you used to hit them on all the muscles.
What part of speech is strapper?
Strapper is a noun.
What is the plural of strapper?
The plural of strapper is strappers.

Words near strapper in the dictionary

  1. strapped in
  2. strapped on
  3. strapped on a pair
  4. strapped on the feedbag
  5. strapped up
  6. strapper
  7. strappers
  8. strappier
  9. strappies
  10. strappiest
  11. strappin'

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: strapper (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-strapper.wav.

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