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
"They were called Rapparees," Mr. Malone says, "from being armed with a half-pike, called by the Irish a rapparee."
From Rookwood by William Harrison Ainsworth
This rapparee promised him mountains of wealth, and an English company was found to advance large sums of money—I fear on Sir Arthur's guarantee.
From The Antiquary — Volume 01 by Sir Walter Scott
‘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 Frederick Marryat
How him an' his blood-cousin, Tim Moriarty, lay wan night for an' ould rapparee av a landlord, who'd evicted pore Tim out av house an' home.
From The Luck of the Mounted A Tale of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police by Ralph S. Kendall
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.
