slapper n OED ~ 1 3 (1886). A wooden stick used to beat school-children.
[1897] 1927 DOYLE (ed) 72 "The Landfall of Cabot": And his tongue was like a clapper / And his fingers were all broken / From the master's hardwood slapper. 1931 BYRNES 74 You would always tell a pupil of Mrs Walsh, by merely looking at the palm of his or her hand, which was invariablv stained a rich purple, from the continued use of the 'slapper.' 1938 ENGLISH 121 Though keeping her little charges under control. Agatha never—as was the custom in those days—used a 'slapper.' C 65-4 When we were in school in [the] early fifties the teacher would have a long wooden pointer, a 'slapper.' for punishing the children. We usually got five to eight cracks on the palm of the hands.
