subs. phr. (common).—‘A very small but sprightly boy’ (B. E., c. 1696); spec. a precocious callow youth, or pert girl: always more or less in contempt. As adj. = diminutive, insignificant: also WHIPPING-SNAPPING.

1

  1707.  WARD, Hudibras Redivivus, II. iv. 4. No sooner had they fix’d their Peepers Upon the Lifeless WHIPPER-SNAPPERS.

2

  1742.  FIELDING, Joseph Andrews, IV. vi. A parcel of WHIPPER-SNAPPER sparks.

3

  1834.  SOUTHEY, The Doctor, cxxvii. The dog was frequently detected in all its varieties, from the lap-dog, who had passed into the WHIPPER-SNAPPER petit-maître, and the turn-spit who was now the bandy-legged baker’s boy, to the Squire’s eldest son, who had been a lurcher.

4

  1860–3.  THACKERAY, The Roundabout Papers, xv. Though they had seven-leagued boots, you remember all sorts of WHIPPING-SNAPPING Tom Thumbs used to elude and outrun them.

5

  1871.  BROWNING, Balaustion’s Adventure.

        There spoke up a brisk little somebody,
Critic and WHIPPERSNAPPER in a rage
To set things right.

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