didapper

American  

[dahy-dap-er] / ˈdaɪˌdæp ər /

noun

1. a dabchick.

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Etymology

Origin of didapper

1400–50; late Middle English dydoppar; shortened form of dive-dapper; dap

Example Sentences

His vacations were spent on the river where he learned to handle a canoe and skiff; and before he was fourteen could swim and dive like a didapper.

From Chit-Chat; Nirvana; The Searchlight by Holt, Mathew Joseph

Persons who observe them, as they fly, call to mind how Æsacus, the son of Priam, was changed into a sea bird, called the didapper.

From The Metamorphoses of Ovid Literally Translated into English Prose, with Copious Notes and Explanations by Riley, Henry T. (Henry Thomas)

In the Peri Bathous Pope included Welsted as a didapper and an eel.

From Two Poems Against Pope One Epistle to Mr. A. Pope and the Blatant Beast by Guerinot, J. V. (Joseph V.)

Drake was a didapper to Mandevill:   Candish and Hawkins, Frobisher, all our Voyagers   Went short of Mandevil.

From The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1 by Yule, Henry