capuchin

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A monk belonging to the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, an independent order of Franciscans founded in Italy in 1525-1528 and dedicated to preaching and missionary work.
2. n. A hooded cloak worn by women.
3. n. Any of several long-tailed monkeys of the genus Cebus, native to Central and South America and often having a hoodlike tuft of hair on the head. Also called sapajou.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A member of a mendicant order of Franciscan monks, founded in Italy in 1528 by Matteo di Bassi, and named from the long pointed capouch or cowl which is the distinguishing mark of their dress. According to the statutes of the order, drawn up in 1529, the monks were to live by begging; they were not to use gold or silver or silk in the decoration of their altars, and the chalices were to be of pewter. The Capuchins are most numerous in Austria. In the United States they have convents in the dioceses of Green Bay, Milwaukee, Leavenworth, and New York. See Franciscan.
2. n. [lowercase] A variety of pigeon with a range of inverted feathers on the back of the head, like the cap or cowl of a monk.
3. n. 3. [lowercase] A South American monkey, Cebus capucinus, having black on the head, like the hood or cowl of a Capuchin; hence, any sapajou or monkey of the genus Cebus. Also written capucine. See cut under Cebinæ.
4. n. 4. [lowercase] One of the baldheaded fruit-crows of South America, Gymnocephalus calvus.
5. n. A large loose hood worn by women in the eighteenth century.
6. n. A hooded cloak of the same period.

Wiktionary

1. n. A capuchin monkey.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Eccl.) A Franciscan monk of the austere branch established in 1526 by Matteo di Baschi, distinguished by wearing the long pointed cowl or capoch of St. Francis.
2. n. A garment for women, consisting of a cloak and hood, resembling, or supposed to resemble, that of capuchin monks.
3. n. A long-tailed South American monkey (Cabus capucinus), having the forehead naked and wrinkled, with the hair on the crown reflexed and resembling a monk's cowl, the rest being of a grayish white; -- called also capucine monkey, weeper, sajou, sapajou, and sai.
4. n. Other species of Cabus, as Cabus fatuellus (the brown capucine or horned capucine.), Cabus albifrons (the cararara), and Cabus apella.
5. n. A variety of the domestic pigeon having a hoodlike tuft of feathers on the head and sides of the neck.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a hooded cloak for women
2. n. monkey of Central America and South America having thick hair on the head that resembles a monk's cowl