Rapparees or raparees (from the Irish ropairí, plural of ropaire, meaning half-pike or pike-wielding person) were Irish guerrilla fighters who operated on the Jacobite side during the 1690s Williamite war in Ireland. Subsequently the name was also given to bandits and highwaymen in Ireland – many former guerrillas having turned to crime after t...
an Irish pirate or freebooter
• (n.) A wild Irish plunderer, esp. one of the 17th century; -- so called from his carrying a half-pike, called a rapary.
any of the dispossessed native Irish who employed guerrilla methods to resist the English from the time of the English Civil Wars (1642–51) and more ...
Rap`pa·ree' (-pȧ*rē') noun A wild Irish plunderer, esp. one of the 17th century; -- so called from his carrying a half-pike, called a rapary . [ Written also raparee .]
A rapparee was a 17th century Irish irregular soldier.