Obs. in polite use. [Of uncertain origin. Cf. OF. ‘clapoir, bosse, bubo, panus inguinis’; ‘clapoire, clapier, lieu de débauche, maladie q’on y attrape.’] Gonorrhœa.
1587. Myrr. Mag., Malin, iii. Before they get the Clap.
a. 1605. Montgomerie, Flyting, 312. The clape and the canker.
1851. Mayne, Exp. Lex., Clap, vulgar name for the disease Baptorrhœa.
1881. in Syd. Soc. Lex.
b. With a, and plural.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett. (1650), I. 452. How many of her maids of honour did receive claps at court?
1663. Butler, Hud., I. I. 64. Ibid., II. I. 246. Claps and dice. Ibid., II. III. 967.
1681. Trial S. Colledge, 49. He [Dugdale] did confess that he had an old Clap, and yet he gave out he was Poysoned.
1691. Wood, Ath. Oxon., II. 295. A Clap did usher Davenant to his grave.
1709. Swift, Advancem. Relig., Wks. 1755, II. I. 99. He will let you know he is going to a wench, or that he has got a clap, with as much indifferency, as he would a piece of publick news.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 77, ¶ 1. A young Heir … entertained us with an Account of his Claps.
1735. Pope, Donne Sat., II. 47. A clap.
1738. Johnson, London, 114. They sing, they dance, clean shoes, or cure a clap.
1761. Churchill, Rosciad, 1. His claps.
1803. Med. Jrnl., IX. 572. A clap. Ibid. (1806), XV. 418. Repeated claps.
c. Comb., as clap-doctor.
1710. Steele & Addison, Tatler, No. 260, ¶ 5. He was the first Clap Doctor that I meet with in History.
