rapparee
Americannoun
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an armed Irish freebooter or plunderer, especially of the 17th century.
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any freebooter or robber.
noun
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an Irish irregular soldier of the late 17th century
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obsolete any plunderer or robber
Etymology
Origin of rapparee
First recorded in 1680–90, rapparee is from the Irish word rapaire
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
No thimblerigging rapparee, No jobber in kidnappery No filcher I !
From Time Magazine Archive
‘Yes, you rapparee; but didn’t you promise—or didn’t I promise for you, which is all one and the same thing—that you’d pay it all back with your prize-money—and where is it? answer that, Terence O’Brien.’
From Peter Simple by Marryat, Frederick
"They were called Rapparees," Mr. Malone says, "from being armed with a half-pike, called by the Irish a rapparee."
From Rookwood by Ainsworth, William Harrison
Doing the rapparee and Rory of the hill.
From Ulysses by Joyce, James
Day in we hunt the spinney fox, Day out the rapparee; His cave is in the broken rocks Above the Correi-buidhe.
From The Mountainy Singer by MacCathmhaoil, Seosamh
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
