clap, noun3
- Origin:
- EnglishShow more Special senses of general English; echoic.
obs.
1. [Perhaps a back-formation from clapping.] click.
1822 W.J. Burchell Trav. I. 192The Hottentots call this shrub ’Num’num (or Noomnoom, agreeably to English orthography), each syllable preceded by a guttural clap of the tongue.
1835 A. Smith Diary (1940) II. 187They spoke a language which consisted almost entirely of claps and quite unintelligible to them.
2.
a. The crack of a whip.
1939 S. Cloete Watch for Dawn 33Clap and echo sounded into the mountains; birds rose from the trees; and the peace of the valley was broken.
b. With qualifying word: back-clap, the crack of a whip behind one’s head.
c1963 B.C. Tait Durban Story 2The fellow who could in one and the same swing, reverse the whip and achieve a back-clap, was the show-off of the street.
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