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large basket, usually with a cover, used for the packing and carrying of articles; as, a hamper of wine; a clothes hamper; an oyster hamper, which contains two bushels.

One who champs, or bites.

One guilty of champerty; one who purchases a suit, or the right of suing, and carries it on at his own expense, in order to obtain a share of the gain.

Partnership in power; equal share of authority. [Obs.] Beauté ne sleighte, strengthe ne hardyness, Ne may with Venus holde champartye. Chaucer.

A hamper to be carried in the hand; a hand basket used in carrying grapes to the press.

The upper rigging, spars, etc., of a ship. [Written also top hamper.] All the ships of the fleet . . . were so encumbered with tophamper, so overweighted in proportion to their draught of water, that they could bear but little canvas, even with smooth seas and light and favorable winds. Motley.

there he arranged his men in the streets. Berners. [They] were beginning to arrange their hampers. Boswell. A mechanism previously arranged. Paley.

To encumber or load, especially with something that impedes motion; to hamper. The winds of birds were clogged with ace and snow. Dryden.

A large basket or hamper of wickerwork, used for the transportation of china, crockery, and similar wares.

m the ground adjacent. Bacon. But it was not alone that the he drained their treasure and hampered their industry. Motley.

of basket, usually of wickerwork, and adapted for the packing and carrying of articles; a hamper. Hanaper office, an office of the English court of chancery in which writs relating to the business of the public, and the returns to them, were anciently kept in a hanaper or hamper. Blackstone.

To impede by a hopple; to tie the feet of (a horse or a cow) loosely together; to hamper; to hobble; as, to hopple an unruly or straying horse.

A main-hamper. [Obs.] Ainsworth.

ending between others, by assisting either party with money or means to carry it on. See Champerty. Wharton. Cap of maintenance. See under Cap.

A gallery for minstrels. [Obs.] W. Hamper.

To confine; to hamper; to shackle.

Not hampered or impeded; free. [Written also untrammelled.]