Dictionary

wapper en · VERB · etymology 1

Etymology

Frequentative of wap; compare German dialect wappern, wippern (“to move up and down, to rock”).

Meanings

1. (dialectal, obsolete, transitive) To exhaust; to tire out.
   • "I be wappered," Catherine declared as she flung herself down upon the bed and assumed a pose that denoted complete exhaustion. 2010, Kathy Lynn Emerson, Face Down upon an Herbal:
   • Marry, 'tis nigh on forty mile, I warrant. Thou'll not see Stratford to-night, sir; thy horse is wappered out, and that I plainly see." 1899, Joseph Arthur Gibbs, A Cotswold Village, page 258:
   • When I asked him how he was he confessed to being wappered, which he explained meant tired, fatigued, or, as we might say, knackered. 2011, Diarmaid Ó Muirithe, Words We Don't Use (Much Anymore):
   • this is it, That makes the wapper'd widow wed again; 1623, William Shakespeare, The Life of Tymon of Athens:
   • They monks be weedy batch! Make un wappered and whelmed! Make un moil! ' 1962, Prudence Andrew, A Question of Choice, page 20:
   • Emery Ann declared to me, privately, after I had said in general council that I felt it impossible, that she was "really wappered out with mountains; […]" 1876, Adeline Dutton Train Whitney, Sights and Insights: Patience Strong's Story of Over the Way, page 318:
   • At first he felt somewhat wappered. 1967, Ivor John Carnegie Brown, A Ring of Words, page 97:
2. (intransitive) To move weakly or tremulously; to flag.
   • Miss Mansfield abandons her salt furrow and in two stanzas lies flapping and wappering. 1912 March 28, “Present-Day Criticism”, in The New Age, volume 10, number 22, page 519:
   • She was wappering and seemed shot. 1930, The Cornhill Magazine, page 638:
   • But still he stode, his face to set awrye, And wappering turnid vp his white of eye. 1610, John Higgins, The Mirour for Magistrates:
   • his blue and white dotted tarentaal scarf wappering in the wind. 2003, Patrick Mynhardt, Boy from Bethulie: An Autobiography, page 122:
   • She was toothlesse, chap-falne, hollow-eyed, and wappering withall, her haire sluttishly hanging about her eares, unkempt, and as greazie as it was knotty; 1634, Mateo Alemán, The Rogve: Or, The Life of Gvzman de Alfarache:

Forms

Relateds

wapper-jawed · wapper jaw

wapper en · NOUN · etymology 2

Etymology

Borrowing from Flemish

Meanings

1. A mischievous sprite.
   • "And a wapper, too; when I first saw it I thought it was a rabbit, and now it's bigger than a deer, and still a mile or two off," said Joe. 1863, John Beauchamp Jones, Wild Western Scenes, page 40:
   • Presently the good woman discovered to her horror that the foundling was swelling and becoming heavy, and when she put it down the Wapper assumed his own shape and ran off shrieking. 2022, Edward Neville Vose, The Spell of Flanders:
   • The Wapper had, just for the fun of it, put an iron pot under the hat. 2022, William Elliot Griffis, Belgian Fairy Tales:

Forms