[f. STRAP v.1 + -ER1.]
1. A ‘strapping’ or tall and robust person; one above the average stature and strength of build. (Chiefly applied to women. Cf. STRAPPING ppl. a.)
1675. Wycherley, Country Wife, III. ii. Come let us go too: Madam, your Servant. (To Alithea.) Good night Strapper.—(To Lucy [Alithea’s maid].)
1690. Pagan Prince, xxviii. 27. This Goddess … took him up in her Arms (for your Pagan Goddesses are all Strappers).
1706. Estcourt, Fair Example, I. i. She’s a Strapper, and I’m a Pigmy.
1751. Smollett, Per. Pickle, xcv. Ah! you strapper, what a jolly bitch you are!
1802. G. Colman, Br. Grins, Elder Bro. (1804), 118. Isaac ey’d Toby,… And saw he was a strapper,—stout and tall.
1842. J. Wilson, Chr. North (1857), I. 157. She is what is delicately called a strapper, rosy-armed as the morning.
1847. C. Brontë, Jane Eyre, xx. A strapper—a real strapper, Jane: big, brown, and buxom.
† b. transf. A monstrous lie, ‘whopper.’ Obs.
1677. W. Hughes, Man of Sin, I. x. 46. Did not the Pope deliver Trajan’s, the Heathenish Persecuting Emperor’s Soul from Hell, as they assure us; and whereof, with other strappers of the same breed, you will hear more fully hereafter? Ibid., III. iii. 58. Such another Strapper is their talk about Christs Shrowd, or Winding-sheet.
2. One who straps or grooms horses.
1828. Sporting Mag., XXIII. 19. I found him in the yard, looking pretty slippery alter the strappers.
1891. Field, 7 March, p. xxix/1. Will any Gentleman recommend a strong, active man as Groom, under coachman;… must be thorough stableman, good strapper, and experienced with hunters.
3. slang. An unremitting worker.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, II. 305/1. They are all picked men in the shop—regular ‘strappers,’ and no mistake.
4. A laborer employed temporarily at busy seasons; an extra hand. Also see quot. 1892. dial. or local.
1888. Berksh. Gloss., Strapper, a journeyman labourer coming for work at harvest time or hay making.
1892. Labour Commission Gloss., Strappers, There is a system in vogue at the docks by which the conveyance of goods from the dock-quays to the piling grounds is done by contractors…. Sometimes they require more men, and these are called strappers.
