subs. (old).—‘A swingeing two-handed woman’ (B. E. and GROSE); anything big or bulky: cf. WHOPPER. STRAPPING = tall, robust, well-made.
1678. COTTON, Scarronides, or, Virgil Travestie (Works (1725), iv. 105].
| At last a Crew of STRAPPING Jades, | |
| That were, or should have been her Maids. |
1681. A. RADCLIFFE, Ovid Travestie, 3.
| Has he not got a Lady that’s a STRAPPER? | |
| Ibid., 26. | |
| This Girl, said she, is grown a STRAPPING LASS, | |
| She must be marry’d, or she’l grow too busy. |
1694. CONGREVE, The Double Dealer, iii. 10. Then that other great STRAPPING Lady.
1700. FARQUHAR, The Constant Couple, i. 1. There are five-and-thirty STRAPPING officers gone this morning.
1751. SMOLLETT, Peregrine Pickle, lxxxvii. Ah, you STRAPPER, what a jolly bitch you are.
1778. BURNEY, Diary (1893), i. 88. ‘You who are light and little can soon recover, but I who am a gross man might suffer severely.’… Poor Lady Sadd, who is quite a STRAPPER, made no answer.
1847. C. BRONTË, Jane Eyre, xx. ‘She’s a rare one, is she not, Jane?’ ‘Yes, sir.’ ‘A STRAPPER—a real STRAPPER, Jane: big, brown, and buxom.’
1885. Daily Telegraph, 25 Aug. ‘The police, fine STRAPPING fellows, usually Irish, wear white ducks in fine weather.’
