[f. CLAP v.1 9 b; i.e., bread clapped thin.] Oatmeal cake, beaten or rolled thin, and baked hard. Also called clap-cake.
1691. Ray, N. Country Wds., s.v. Bannock, 2 Clap-bread, thin hard oat-cakes.
1769. De Foes Tour Gt. Brit., III. 289. Oat-cakes for Bread, or Clapt-bread, as it is called.
1860. Mrs. Gaskell, C. Brontë, 45. She spoke of the oat-cake at Cowan Bridge (the clap-bread of Westmorland) as being different to the leaven-raised oat-cake of Yorkshire. Ibid. (1863), Sylvias L. (ed. 2), I. 62. The great rack of clap-bread hung over-head.
1878. Cumberl. Gloss. (E. D. S.), Clap bread, cakes beat and clapped out with the hands.