Strapper
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A large, strong, robust person (usually a man).
- 2 a large and strong and heavyset man wordnet
- 3 A person who works with straps, as on leather goods.
- 4 One who straps horses; now, specifically, someone employed to attend and groom racehorses.
"I was, however, but a very brief period employed as a strapper, as from the care and pains which I took in cleaning and watering the horses they soon mended in their jaded, worn-out appearance, for they were regularly fed, because I was regularly sober, a state, I have been informed, in which my predecessor was never in after mid-day."
- 5 A cow which yields a small amount of milk. archaic
"“Nabla, Nabla,” says he, “them was the true words of Father Luke's when he said them would lend him a strapper would be repaid twofold. Here comes our own strapper back to us in company with a brave lump of a bullockeen. Faith,” says he, “Father Luke, you're the man for my money, and if ever ye want a strapper again, just tip me the word, and I'll go bail ye'll not want one long; and if ye want two, why, I'll steal one for ye.”"
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- 6 A wire that joins two light switches so that a light can be turned off or on from either switch.
Example
More examples"I was, however, but a very brief period employed as a strapper, as from the care and pains which I took in cleaning and watering the horses they soon mended in their jaded, worn-out appearance, for they were regularly fed, because I was regularly sober, a state, I have been informed, in which my predecessor was never in after mid-day."
Etymology
From strap + -er, principally strap + -er (agent noun suffix). The sense referring to a poorly producing milk cow (from strap + -er) came from a dialectal sense of the verb strap as a troponym of milk: not even the most skilful milking action could coax enough milk from the udder.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.