Definitions

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

  • noun A metal tip or mounting on a scabbard or sheath.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A metal tip or case serving to strengthen the end of a scabbard.
  • noun A similar protection for the end of a strap or belt.
  • noun In bronze-casting, the outer shell or case of the mold, sometimes consisting of a sort of composition which is applied upon the wax, and sometimes of an outer covering or jacket of plaster in which the pieces of the earthen mold are held together.
  • noun A barrel containing another barrel which holds gun-powder.
  • noun That part of an object by which it is attached to something else, as the sliding loop on a belt to which a bayonet-scabbard is secured, or the back-piece by which a buckle is fixed to a strap or a garment.
  • noun The end of a bridle-rein where it is buckled to the bit.
  • noun Among hunters, the tip of a fox's tail.
  • To furnish with chapes.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The piece by which an object is attached to something, as the frog of a scabbard or the metal loop at the back of a buckle by which it is fastened to a strap.
  • noun The transverse guard of a sword or dagger.
  • noun The metal plate or tip which protects the end of a scabbard, belt, etc.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun archaic The piece by which an object is attached to something, such as the frog of a scabbard or the metal loop at the back of a buckle by which it is fastened to a strap.
  • noun archaic The transverse guard of a sword or dagger.
  • noun archaic The lower metallic cap of a sword's scabbard.

Etymologies

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

[Middle English, from Old French, hood, head covering, from Late Latin cappa, hooded cloak.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

French, a churchman's cope, a cover, a chape, from Latin cappa.

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Examples

  • Ireland is mentioned in the letter in this post, and note the spelling of cheap, as 'chape', which phonetically would be how cheap would sound to someone of that extraction...

    Gamble Letter #3 Trish Short Lewis 2006

  • In French chapeau (Latin cappellus) and chapelle (Latin cappella) are related to the old word chape which originally meant a kind of cape (Latin cappa

    languagehat.com 2010

  • More high status examples would have a metal chape scabbard tip.

    Sudanese Kaskara Swords legatus hedlius 2009

  • More high status examples would have a metal chape scabbard tip.

    Archive 2009-08-01 legatus hedlius 2009

  • It's difficult to draw back far enough to see the chape of the thing.

    :Acquired Taste Tim Stretton 2008

  • The church's address is always given as Spanish Place, because of its historic links - its predecessor was a Spanish embassy chape.

    Archive 2007-09-01 Joanna Bogle 2007

  • Parolles, the gallant militarist, — that was his own phrase, — that had the whole theoric of war in the knot of his scarf, and the practise in the chape of his dagger.

    All’s Well That Ends Well 2004

  • Other seruingmen there were with the sayd Bassas, with red attire on their heads, much like French hoods, but the long flappe somewhat smaller towardes the end, with scuffes or plates of mettall, like vnto the chape of an ancient arming sword, standing on their foreheads like other Ianisaries.

    The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation 2003

  • Its weight pulled his hips out of alignment and the chape protecting the bottom of the scabbard regularly knocked against his calf as he walked.

    Lord of the Isles 1997

  • He drew the sword, gripping the hilt in one hand and the chape of the simple, sturdy scabbard in the other.

    Lord of the Isles 1997

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