Clapped

Clapped (adjective / UK slang)

(Also heard as: Clapped out, Proper clapped)

Definition: Ugly, beat-up, or completely falling apart. A blunt, unforgiving insult for someone’s looks, battered trainers, or a rust-bucket car.

Pronunciation: /klæpt/

Where It Comes From: British mechanics have called knackered old cars “clapped out” since the 1940s, but modern London street culture gave the phrase teeth.

Around the mid-2010s, school corridors and drill tracks dropped the “out” and aimed “clapped” straight at people’s faces, terrible haircuts, and battered tracksuits. Social media banter and TikTok meme pages helped the insult jump nationwide within a couple of years.

How People Actually Use It: Brutally honest banter.

It gets thrown around without much filter. If a mate turns up in scuffed, mud-stained trainers from five years ago, someone will tell him his kicks are clapped. It also gets used after a rough night out when someone looks half-dead in the morning (“I look proper clapped today”).

Examples in the Wild:

• “That car is clapped, it’s falling apart.”

  Translation: “That vehicle is ugly and in terrible mechanical condition.”

• “She said my shoes were clapped, so I got a new pair.”

  Translation: “She told me my footwear looked awful, so I replaced them.”

• “I didn’t sleep a wink last night and I look clapped this morning.”

  Translation: “I had zero rest and appear completely exhausted.”

Similar Slang: Knackered, Dust, Battered, Rank, Rough, Manky, Fugly