Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to claw or scratch with the open hand and nails, to beat, to thrash, to drub.

c.1551		Tom Tyler and his Wife (1661) in Farmer (1908) 35: (She beateth him) Four! five! and six! Lord, that I had some sticks! I would clapperclaw thy bones.
c.1580		‘I.T.’ Grim The Collier of Croydon IV i: Now Miller, Miller, dustipole, I’ll clapper-claw your Iobbernoule.
1593		Passionate Morrice (1876) 71: Holde thy peace, olde whore [...] or I will clapperclaw your bones.
1600		Look About You xxx: I’ll ca-ca-caperclaw t-t-t’one of ye, for mo-mo-mocking me.
1630		J. Taylor ‘A Bawd’ in Works (1869) II 103: I would have rowz’d my Spirits, belabour’d my Inuention, beaten my braines, thump’d, bumbasted, strapadoed, lambski’nd, and clapperclaw’d my wits to haue mounted her praise.
1651		T. Randolph Hey for Honesty II i: Have I not here a good cudgel? if thou do, thou shalt be clapper-de-clawed.
1684		A York-Shire Dialogue 84: To Clapperclaw, is to [...] beat or Fight earnestly.
1696		Motteux (trans.) Gargantua and Pantagruel (1927) II Bk V 680: No, I’d not have, upon my life, / Great Alexander for a wife, / Nor Pompey, nor his dad-in-law, / Who did each other clapper-claw.
1724		Hist. of the remarkable Life of John Sheppard 53: I stole up Bell-Yard, but narrowly escap’d being Clapper-claw’d by two Fellows.
1762		Bridges Homer Travestie (1764) I 59: Juno at last was over-aw’d, / Or Jove had been well clapper-claw’d.
1767		J. O’Keeffe The She-Gallant 15: I’ll catch him, I’ll clapper claw him.
1770		T. Chatterton Revenge II v: Here are the lovers all at clapper-clawing [...] Oho, immortals, why this catterwauling?
1797		Bridges Burlesque Homer (4th edn) I 2: [as cit. 1762].
1812		‘Hector Bull-us’ Diverting Hist. of John Bull and Brother Jonathan 71: My wife too has several times threatened to clapper-claw you, and I advise you to take care of her, for she has the nails of a cat.
1820		‘L.A.W—LAW!’ London Songster 11: If you’re a Johnny Raw, Lord how they will clapper and claw.
1824		‘Geoffrey Crayon’ Tales of a Traveller (1850) 385: He shrugged his shoulders, as he looked at the signs of a fierce clapper-clawing.
1833		M. Scott Tom Cringle’s Log (1834) 216: The little vessel began to yerk at the head seas [...] and to lie over, as if Davy Jones himself had clapperclawed the mast heads.
1840		T. Haliburton Clockmaker III 38: See the old cat and her kitten a-caterwaulin’ and clapper-clawin’ each other till they make the fur fly.
1859		G.A. Sala Twice Round the Clock 82: That famous clapper-clawing match between Polly Briggs and Sukey Wright.
1862		Banffshire Jrnl 30 Dec. 7/1: Now there’s two ’Merican Eagles, a clapperclawin’ one another like mad.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. 93: CAPPER-CLAWING, female encounter, where caps are torn, and nails freely used. Sometimes its is pronounced clapper-claw.
1879		Star (Guernsey) 19 July 4/6: Clapperclaw ’em, and rend ’em, Skedaddlin’ we’ll send ’em.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 2: Capper-Clawing - Female encounter.
1886		R.L. Stevenson Kidnapped 267: Ye have a fine, hang-dog, rag-and-tatter, clappermaclaw kind of a look to ye, as if ye had stolen the coat from a potato-bogle.
1892		Durham Dly Globe (Durham, NC) 12 Mar. 2/3: At about this point [...] the restraints of politeness are altogether dispensed with, and clapperclawing and hair-pulling follow.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 15: Capper Clawing, a female encounter, in which caps are torn and nails freely used.

2. to abuse verbally, to revile; thus as n.

1692		J. Dennis Poems in Burlesque Dedication 3: Till ev’ry Ship with its great Name, By being Clapperclaw’d became An Irony and Jest of Fame [OED].
a.1704		T. Brown First Satire of Persius in Works (1760) I 51: They mayn’t clapper-claw each other.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 51: Clapper-claw — Domestic prattle in St. Giles’s, in which a woman or two join to tell a third (usually the husband) a little bit of his own.
1836		M. Scott Cruise of the Midge II 268: While my uncle was clapperclawing with his serving-men.
1868		H.L. Williams Black-Eyed Beauty 87: If Valentine hadn’t shown it in Ben Jonson, they’d have been clapperclawing yet.
1870		Eve. Teleg. (Philadelphia, PA) 22 Jan. 7/1: Scolding is ‘clapperclaw’.
1889		Dead Bird (Sydney) 23 Nov. 2/3: That herterogeneous [sic]collection of yellow-visaged, bilious old cranks and crocks [...] who spend one half of their time in clapper-clawing and damning each other.
1912		N.Y. Tribune 14 Jan. 20/2: Ah, the intellectual spirits! A lesson to the vulgar who clapperclaw, fall into personalities and smite below the belt.

3. of a man, to have sexual intercourse, to fondle sexually.

1685		G. Meriton In Praise of York-shire Ale 73: O Rotten jade thou gave young Nobbs the Itch Last time he clapperclaw’d thy Reeking A—.
1772		Bridges Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 116: The dog will surely take my life, / For clapper-clawing his fine wife.

4. to pickpocket.

1867

(con. 1600s) M. Lemon Leyton Hall I 236: ‘A barnacle—a foist, I think you call him—hath eased me of my purse.’ ‘Oh!’ said Honest Joe [...] ‘So clapperclawed already? I trust by a ben cull of my ken.’.