A wild Irish plunderer, esp. one of the 17th century; -- so called from his carrying a half-pike, called a rapary.

Rapparees (from the Irish, ropairí, plural of ropaire, actually meaning half pike or a 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 the war was over.