clap, verb2

/klæp/
Origin:
English, DutchShow more English, influenced by Dutch klappen to make an explosive sound.
obsolescent
1. transitive. To crack (a whip).
1822 W.J. Burchell Trav. I. 421As the guide assured us that Speelman could not be beyond hearing, we clapped the whip with all our might, in hopes of calling him to our assistance.
1887 S.W. Silver & Co.’s Handbk to S. Afr. 227As the drivers ‘clap’ their long whips, and the teams, eight pairs of oxen labouring at each wain, move briskly over the way, all eyes are upon them.
1958 S. Cloete Mask 25One who must have spent much time in the country to be able to clap a great sixteen-foot driving whip the way he did.
2. intransitive. Of a whip: to make a sharp cracking sound.
a1858 J. Goldswain Chron. (1949) II. 114I soon heard a wip clap and knew that thear was wagons coming.
1939 S. Cloete Watch for Dawn 33The drivers..ran beside their spans, their long whipsticks bent like bows under the weight of the clapping thongs.
To crack (a whip).
Of a whip: to make a sharp cracking sound.
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obsolete or obsolescent
clap, nounn.3clapping, verbal nounvbl n.
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