Word.ws English Dictionary

understrapper

understrapper noun: any underling or inferior in office.

Noun

understrapper (plural understrappers)

  1. Any underling or inferior in office.
    • I have ſeen him lately at Bullogne, and am perfectly vvell acquainted vvith ſome perſons vvho have ſupplied him vvith French lace and embroidery; and, as a proof of vvhat I allege, I deſire you vvill order him and this barber, vvho is his underſtrapper, to be examined on the ſpot.1753, [Tobias Smollett], The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom. […], volume I, London: […] W. Johnston, […], →OCLC, pages 214–215
    • No want of hands in our Theatre, Miss Bertram. No want of under strappers—My sister desires her love, and hopes to be admitted into the Company, and will be happy to take the part of any old duenna or tame Confidante, that you may not like to do yourselves.1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter XIII, in Mansfield Park: […], volume I, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, pages 268–269
  2. A freelance operator for MI5.
    • Alfie was familiar with the term ‘understrapper’. The Harry Fielding Alfie knew was an understrapper; a bob-a-job man for MI5. Somebody who could do a bit of house- or office-breaking, or some surveillance work.2000, Philip Davison, McKenzie’s Friend, Penguin, page 37

Examples of understrapper in a sentence

  • Through the agency of the Marquesan, he had purchased them from an understrapper of the court.1847 March 30, Herman Melville, chapter LXXXII, in Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas; […], London: John Murray, […], →OCLC:
  • A fine state of affairs, when a fifteen-dollar-a-week understrapper’s job gets to interfering with the business of an institution like the Wapatomac National Bank.1927, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 3, in The Aristocratic Miss Brewster:

Forms of understrapper

pluralunderstrappers

Origin of understrapper

From under- + strapper.

Questions about understrapper

What does understrapper mean?
Understrapper means any underling or inferior in office.
How do you use understrapper in a sentence?
Through the agency of the Marquesan, he had purchased them from an understrapper of the court.
What part of speech is understrapper?
Understrapper is a noun.
What is the plural of understrapper?
The plural of understrapper is understrappers.

Words near understrapper in the dictionary

  1. understoreys
  2. understories
  3. understory
  4. understorys
  5. understrap
  6. understrapper
  7. understrappers
  8. understrapping
  9. understraps
  10. understrata
  11. understratum

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: understrapper (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)-Flame, not lame-understrapper.wav.

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