Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a big, strong person, a notably hard worker; thus strapping-shop n., any workplace where an especially large volume of work is required of the employees.

1675		Wycherley Country-Wife III ii: Come, let us go too [to alithea] Madam, your servant. [to lucy] Good night, strapper.
1691		Catalogue of Jilts, cracks, prostitutes, night-walkers [...] and others of the linnen-lifting tribe 1: 6. Mrs Sarah F—r, a great two-handed Strapper [...] if she snaps a Cully his Pocket must pay 00l. 05s. 00d.
1706		R. Estcourt Fair Example I i: She’s a Strapper, and I’m a Pigmy.
1714		S. Centlivre Wonder! IV i: Your mother! by St. Anthony, she’s a strapper; why, you are a dwarf to her.
1730		Hist. of Col. Francis Charteris 34: This Woman, who was a jolly likely Dame, and of the Colonel’s size (for he lov’d Strappers) was carrying a Sack of Corn.
1751		Smollett Peregrine Pickle (1964) 597: Ah, you strapper, what a jolly good bitch you are!
1761		Nancy Dawson’s Jests 13: What, says he, that urchin married to such a strapper, Oons, ’tis a glyster pipe in the arse of an elephant.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1812		Spirit of Irish Wit 191: A strapper of an Irishman, six foot four.
1828		W. Carr Dialect of Craven II 174: Strapper. A large, tall person.
1832		S. Lover Legends and Stories 192: By my sowl, it’s she that’s the sthrapper.
1847		C. Brontë Jane Eyre II 138: ‘She’s a rare one, is she not, Jane?’ ‘Yes, sir.’ ‘A strapper—a real strapper, big, brown and buxom.’.
1848		Bartlett Dict. Americanisms.
1853		R.S. Surtees Mr Sponge’s Sporting Tour 26: The shirtless strapper of a couple of vicious hack hunters.
1861		H. Mayhew London Labour and the London Poor II 304/2: I work at what is called a strapping shop [...] I call ‘strapping’ doing as much work as a human being or a horse possibly can in a day.
1874		‘Old Calabar’ Won in a Canter I 121: He got a strapper at a neighbouring livery-stable to do it [i.e. grooming racehorses] at a remuneration of six shillings a week.
1889		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 7 Dec. 10/1: Cowan, Princeton’s left tackle, is a strapper and as strong as an ox.
1970		Canberra Times (ACT) 28 Oct. 40/1: Strapper Barry David Becker told the Big Philou jury, today that Leslie Edward Lewis had ‘flicked’ a note, to him in prison which read, ‘10 big ones to nod your head or know anyone who will, OK’.
2013		D. Whish-Wilson Zero at the Bone [ebook] He’s a strapper for one of the trainers.

2. (UK Und.) an attractive woman.

1845, 1855

B.M. Carew Life and Adventures.