cap

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Definitions (115)

American Heritage Dictionary (29)

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: a cardinal's cap; a sailor's cap.
noun An academic mortarboard. Used especially in the phrase cap and gown.

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Century Dictionary (72)

A covering for the head; a hood; now, especially, a head-covering or head-dress made of soft material and usually fitting more closely to the head than a hat. Men's caps are usually made of cloth, silk, or fur, are without a brim, except sometimes a peak in front, cover the crown or top of the head, and are worn as an outdoor covering. Women's caps are made of lace, muslin, ribbons, and other light materials, and sometimes cover both the back and sides of the head, as well as the top. They are worn as an indoor covering or ornament. Caps are in many cases made to serve, by their form, color, ornamentation, etc., as insignia of rank or dignity, or emblems of particular principles or occupations, as the ecclesiastical cap (see biretta), the cap of liberty (see Phrygian cap, below), the fool's cap, the nurse's cap, etc.
Anything resembling a cap in appearance, position, or use. Specifically — In botany, the pileus of a mushroom. See pileus. In ornithology, the pileum or top of a bird's head, especially when in any way notable, as by special coloration. See pileum. A percussion-cap. An inner plate secured as a cover over the movement or “works” of some kinds of watches: now nearly disused. Nautical: (1) A covering of metal or of tarred canvas for the end of a rope, to prevent fraying. (2) A large thick block of wood, strengthened by iron bands, and having a square and a round hole in it, used to confine the heel of one mast to the head of another above which it is erected. The square hole of the lower cap is fixed firmly on the tenon in the head of the lower mast, while the topmast traverses through the round hole. The topmast-cap is secured in the same way on the head of the topmast, the topgallantmast passing through the round hole. The bowsprit also is fitted with a cap, through which the jib-boom passes. (3) One of the square blocks of wood laid upon others on which the keel of a vessel rests in the process of building. In bookbinding, the envelop of paper which the binder puts around the edges of a book-cover to protect it from injury while he is at work on other parts of the book. In machinery: (1) The upper half of a Journal-box: the lower half is called the pillow. E. H. Knight. (2) The tire or face of a glaze-wheel. (3) The terminal section of a pipe having a plug at the end. (4) The part connecting a pump-rod with a working-beam. (5) The band connecting the handstaff and swingel of a fiail; the capling. The movable top of the house of a windmill. In carpentry, the uppermost of any assemblage of parts, as the lintel of a door or window-frame, a horizontal beam joining the heads of a row of piles, etc. In mining, as sometimes used, any kind of rock beneath which miners expect or hope to find ore in paying quantities. Sometimes, though rarely, it is used for outcrop, especially when this is comparatively barren of ore. Any unproductive rock, whether it be a portion of a vein or not, may be called cap or capping if valuable ore is found beneath it. In such cases the lode might be said by some to be capped. In coal-mining, the bluish halo of ignited gas appearing above and around the flame of a safety-lamp when a dangerous amount of fire-damp is present. Also called blue-cap. In heraldry, the figure of a cap used in charges, and as part of a crest or an accessory in a coat of arms, sometimes of very conventional shape.
[from foolscap, orig. used with ref. to the old water-mark of the fool's tap and bells.] A name given, with distinctive qualifications, to several sizes of writing-paper. Foolscap, usually folded the long way, ranges from 12 × 15 to 12½ × 15½ inches. Law cap, folded the narrow way, is of the same dimensions. Pot cap and legal cap, always flat or unfolded, are 13 × 16 inches. Flat cap, or full cap, is 14 × 17 inches. Double cap is 17 × 28 inches. In England pot is 12½ × 15½ inches, and foolscap or cap is 13½ × 16½ inches. Exchange cap is a thin, highly calendered paper of good quality, made of new stock, and used for printing bills of exchange, etc.

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Examples

As he undressed, the cap was the last article to be set aside and the extinguishing of the smoky, flickering blaze the last act of the night. — From the Bottom Up
And once the cap was there you knew what that grin really was: a nightmare. — Duma Key
The angle of his cap was an outrage to all official dignity. — Agent Of The Terran Empire
The flaring Bedford cord breeches, the big-buttoned tunic, the gloves perfectly folded under one epaulette, even the peak of the cap were all of the same perfect shade. — Fear is the Key
Brianna thought she'd had her share of beer, too; her cap was awry and her pale face looked flushed, even by firelight. — A Breath of Snow and Ashes

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Cap has been looked up 327 times, favorited once, listed 19 times, and commented on 0 times.

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hat · boot · trouser · collar · suit · helmet · cloth · belt · bag · cover · blanket · scarf

Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (7)

American Heritage Dictionary (2)

Middle English cappe, from Old English cæppe, from Late Latin cappa.
Shortened form of capital¹.

Century Dictionary (5)

(1) Early modern English also cappe, from Middle English cappe, coppe, keppe, from Anglo-Saxon cæppe, also cappe, = OFries. kappe = Middle Dutch kappe, Dutch kap = Middle Low German Low German kappe = Old High German chappa, Middle High German G. kappe = Norwegian kappa = Swedish kappa = Danish kappe = Old French cape, French cape, also chape (from Middle Latin cappa), a cap, hood, cowl; parallel with (2) English cope, from Middle English cope, earlier cāpe, from Anglo-Saxon *cāpe = Icelandic kāpa = Norwegian kaapa = Swedish kåpa = Danish kaabe (from Middle Latin cāpa); (3) English cape, from Middle English cape, from Provencal Spanish Portuguese capa = Italian cappa, a hood, cape, cloak; all from Middle Latin cappa, also cāpa, a cape, a hooded cloak, a word of uncertain origin; said to be from Latin capere, take, take in, “quia quasi totum capiat hominem,” because it envelops, as it were, the whole person (Isidorus of Seville, 19, 31); by others referred to L. caput, head; but neither derivation is satisfactory. See cape and cope, doublets of cap, and the deriv. chapel, chaplet, chaplain, chaperon, etc.
from cap, n.
Same as cop = English cup, q. v.
from Dutch kapen (= Swedish kapa), seize, catch, make prize of, as a privateer or pirate (later D. kaap, privateering); apparently from Latin capere, take, seize, capture: see capable, captive, capture, etc. Hence caper and capper, v.
Unassibilated form of chap, chop, q. v.

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/kæp/

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cap

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