cap
/kæp/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms caps capping capped
- noun A close-fitting hat, either brimless or peaked. “The children were all wearing caps to protect them from the sun.”
- noun A special hat to indicate rank, occupation, etc.
- noun An academic mortarboard.
- noun A protective cover or seal. “He took the cap off the bottle and splashed himself with some cologne.”
- noun A crown for covering a tooth. “He had golden caps on his teeth.”
- noun The summit of a mountain, etc. “There was snow on the cap of the mountain.”
- noun An artificial upper limit or ceiling. “We should put a cap on the salaries, to keep them under control.”
- noun The top part of a mushroom.
- verb (transitive) To cover or seal with a cap.
- verb (transitive) To award a cap as a mark of distinction.
- verb (transitive) To lie over or on top of something.
- verb (by extension, graffiti slang) To paint over someone else's piece or tag.
- verb (transitive) To surpass or outdo.
- verb (transitive) To set (or reach) an upper limit on something. “to cap wages”
- verb (transitive, figurative) To conclude; to make something even more wonderful at the end. “That really capped my day.”
- verb (transitive, cricket) To select a player to play for a specified side.
- noun (finance) Capitalization.
- noun (informal) A capital letter.
- noun (electronics) A capacitor. “parasitic caps”
- noun (slang) A capsule of a drug.
Synonyms
pop a cap in someone's ass detonator detonating device pileus hood ceiling roof crown crownwork jacket jacket crown capital chapiter crest
Antonyms
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English cappe, from Old English cæppe, from Proto-West Germanic *kappā (“covering, hood, mantle”), from Late Latin cappa, itself from Latin caput. Doublet of cape, chape, and cope.
Various clippings from longer words beginning with the three letters.
From Scots cap, an alteration of earlier cop, from Middle English cop, from Old English copp (“a cup, vessel”), from Proto-West Germanic *kopp, from Proto-Germanic *kuppaz.
Clipping of captain.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A covering for the head; esp. (a) One usually with a visor but without a brim, for men and boys; (b) One of lace, muslin, etc., for women, or infants; (c) One used as the mark or ensign of some rank, office, or dignity, as that of a cardinal.
- noun The top, or uppermost part; the chief.
- verb To cover with a cap, or as with a cap; to provide with a cap or cover; to cover the top or end of; to place a cap upon the proper part of; as, to cap a post; to cap a gun. The bones next the joint are capped with a smooth cartilaginous substance. Derham.
- verb To deprive of cap. [Obs.] Spenser.
Etymology [OE. cappe, AS. cæppe, cap, cape, hood, fr. LL, cappa, capa; perhaps of Iberian origin, as Isidorus of Seville mentions it first: "Capa, quia quasi totum capiat hominem; it. capitis ornamentum." See 3d Cape, and cf. 1st Cope.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “cap”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details