Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A usually soft and close-fitting head covering, either having no brim or with a visor.
  • noun A special head covering worn to indicate rank, occupation, or membership in a particular group.
  • noun An academic mortarboard. Used especially in the phrase cap and gown.
  • noun A protective cover or seal, especially one that closes off an end or a tip.
  • noun A crown for covering or sealing a tooth.
  • noun A truck cap.
  • noun A tread for a worn pneumatic tire.
  • noun A fitted covering used to seal a well or large pipe.
  • noun A summit or top, as of a mountain.
  • noun An upper limit; a ceiling.
  • noun Architecture The capital of a column.
  • noun The top part, or pileus, of a mushroom.
  • noun A calyptra.
  • noun A percussion cap.
  • noun A small explosive charge enclosed in paper for use in a toy gun.
  • noun Any of several sizes of writing paper, such as foolscap.
  • noun Sports An appearance by a player in an international soccer game, traditionally rewarded with a hat.
  • transitive verb To cover, protect, or seal with a cap.
  • transitive verb To award a special cap to as a sign of rank or achievement.
  • transitive verb To lie over or on top of; cover.
  • transitive verb To apply the finishing touch to; complete.
  • transitive verb To follow with something better; surpass or outdo.
  • transitive verb To set an upper limit on.
  • idiom (cap in hand) Humbly or submissively.
  • idiom (set (one's) cap for) To attempt to attract and win as a mate.
  • noun A capital letter.
  • transitive verb To capitalize.
  • noun Capital.
  • noun Capitalization.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A wooden bowl: as, a cap of porridge and milk. Also caup.
  • To chap, as the hands.
  • To wrinkle.
  • To coagulate.
  • To arrest.
  • To seize; lay hold of violently; specifically, to seize (a vessel) as a prize; hence, to entrap or insnare.
  • To put a cap on; cover with or as with a cap, in any sense of that word; cover the head, top, end, or some particular part of: as, to cap a dunce at school; to cap (the nipple of) a gun.
  • To complete; consummate; crown; bring to a climax; follow up with something more remarkable than what has previously been done: as, to cap a story with its moral; he capped this exploit by another still more audacious.
  • To puzzle.
  • To deprive of the cap.
  • To salute by taking off the cap: as, to cap a proctor.
  • To uncover the head in reverence or civility.
  • An abbreviation of capital;
  • of Latin caput or capitulum, chapter;
  • in printing, of capitalize.
  • noun The calyptra of a moss.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English cappe, from Old English cæppe, from Late Latin cappa.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Shortened form of capital.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From capitalization, by shortening

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English cappe, from Old English cæppe, from Late Latin cappa.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From capital, by shortening

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word cap.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.