rapparee

American  

[rap-uh-ree] / ˌræp əˈri /

noun

1. an armed Irish freebooter or plunderer, especially of the 17th century.

2. any freebooter or robber.

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rapparee British  

/ ˌræpəˈriː /

noun

1. an Irish irregular soldier of the late 17th century

2. obsolete any plunderer or robber

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Etymology

Origin of rapparee

First recorded in 1680–90, rapparee is from the Irish word rapaire

Example Sentences

Day in we hunt the spinney fox, Day out the rapparee; His cave is in the broken rocks Above the Correi-buidhe.

From Project Gutenberg

And even as they knelt, a wild-eyed rapparee came pounding up with the news that a great force of English was at Cashel, a few miles away; so Red Hugh had to flee with his men over the hills to the westward, to die a year later, poisoned by a man he thought his friend.

From Project Gutenberg

No thimblerigging rapparee, No jobber in kidnappery No filcher I !

From Time Magazine Archive

Alas and alack! the ambassador doesn't keep open-house for his rapparee countrymen: his h�tel is no shelter for females, destitute of any correct idea as to where they are going, and why; and however strange it may seem, he actually seems to think his dwelling as much his own, as though it stood in Belgrave-square, or Piccadilly.

From Project Gutenberg

Not that, while devouring all the "rapparee" experiences of the father, he had no eye for the daughters, and did not see what was passing around him.

From Project Gutenberg