carper
See also: Carper
English
editEtymology
editPronunciation
edit- (UK) IPA(key): /kɑː(ɹ)pə(ɹ)/
- Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)pə(ɹ)
Noun
editcarper (plural carpers)
- A person who habitually carps, who talks too much and regularly finds fault.
- c. 1605–1608, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]:
- Shame not these woods, / By putting on the cunning of a carper.
- 1678, John Bunyan, “The Author’s Apology for His Book”, in The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: […], London: […] Nath[aniel] Ponder […], →OCLC:
- Come, let my carper to his life now look,
And find there darker lines than in my book
He findeth any […]
- 1908, Molière, translated by Curtis Hidden Page, Act I, and Scene I, Tartuffe[1], published 1664:
- He censures everything, this zealous carper.
- 1919 August, P. G. Wodehouse, “Prohibition and the Drama”, in Vanity Fair, page 21:
- What is this sort of piece going to do when confronted with row upon row of coldly sober carpers?
- 2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 11, in The Line of Beauty […], 1st US edition, New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN:
- […] Lady Tipper […] shook her head in wounded defiance of all the carpers and whiners.
Synonyms
edit- See also Thesaurus:complainer