rapparee
English edit
Etymology edit
from Irish rapaire, variant of ropaire (“cutpurse”).
Pronunciation edit
Audio (US) (file)
Noun edit
rapparee (plural rapparees)
- (Ireland, historical or archaic) A bandit or brigand.
- 1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard:
- And then he would relate stories of banshees, and robberies, and ghosts, and hair-breadth escapes, and 'rapparees,' and adventures in the wars of King James, which he heard told in his nonage by the old folk, long vanished, who remembered those troubles.