clapper

Etymology 1

clap + -er

noun

1. One who claps; a person who applauds by clapping the hands.
2. An object so suspended inside a bell that it may hit the bell and cause it to ring; a clanger or tongue.
3. A wooden mechanical device used as a scarecrow; bird-scaring rattle, a wind-rattle or a wind-clapper.
   "Sir, sir! folks' tongues go like the clappers in the fields to drive away the blackbirds. A very little wind makes 'em rattle wonderfully." 1896, Sabine Baring-Gould, Arminell, a social romance, Ch. 37
4. A clapstick (musical instrument).
5. (sewing) A pounding block.
6. The chattering damsel of a mill.
7. (ice hockey) A slapshot
8. (cinematography) The hinged part of a clapperboard, used to synchronise images and soundtrack, or the clapperboard itself.
9. (slang) A person's tongue.
   Emilia 'tis true could use her clapper with great Dexterity, but he had the same advantages against her, which this had against him; Olimpia 's Tongue was also well hung but she ever had reason on her side, which he with reason could never either blame or oppose, and by both these came his Fortune: […] 1683, S. P., The Dutch Rogue, Or, Gusman of Amsterdam, page 238

verb

1. (transitive) To ring a bell by pulling a rope attached to the clapper.
   It is still necessary to warn clergymen against allowing the lazy and pernicious practice of 'clappering,' i.e. tying the bell-rope to the clapper, and pulling it instead of the bell. 1903, Baron Edmund Beckett Grimthorpe, A rudimentary treatise on clocks and watches and bells
2. To make a repetitive clapping sound; to clatter.
3. Of birds, to repeatedly strike the mandibles together.

Etymology 2

Borrowed from French clapier.

noun

1. (obsolete) A rabbit burrow.