cap

• (a lie or exaggeration): 🧢

• IPA^(key): /kæp/, [kʰæp]

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: cap
• Rhymes: -æp

From Middle English cappe, from Old English cæppe, from Late Latin cappa. Doublet of cape, chape, and cope.

cap (plural caps)

1. A close-fitting hat, either brimless or peaked.

   Hyponyms: see Thesaurus:headwear

   The children were all wearing caps to protect them from the sun.

2. A special hat to indicate rank, occupation, etc.
3. An academic mortarboard.
4. A protective cover or seal.

   He took the cap off the bottle and splashed himself with some cologne.

5. A crown for covering a tooth.

   He had golden caps on his teeth.

6. The summit of a mountain, etc.

   There was snow on the cap of the mountain.

7. An artificial upper limit or ceiling.

   Antonym: floor

   We should put a cap on the salaries, to keep them under control.

   • 2022 September 2, Alex Lawson, “G7 countries agree plan to impose price cap on Russian oil”, in The Guardian‎:

     The G7 countries have agreed to impose a price cap on Russian oil in an attempt to stem the flow of funds into the Kremlin’s war coffers. […] The level of the cap is still being discussed.

8. The top part of a mushroom.
9. (toy) A small amount of percussive explosive in a paper strip or plastic cup for use in a toy gun.

   Billy spent all morning firing caps with his friends, re-enacting storming the beach at Normandy.

10. A small explosive device used to detonate a larger charge of explosives.

    He wired the cap to the bundle of dynamite, then detonated it remotely.

11. (slang) A bullet used to shoot someone.
    • 2001, Charles Jade, Jade goes to Metreon‎:

      Did he think they were going to put a cap in his ass right in the middle of Metreon?

12. (slang, originally African-American Vernacular) A lie or exaggeration.

    no cap

    that's cap

13. (sports) A place on a national team; an international appearance.

    Rio Ferdinand won his 50th cap for England in a game against Sweden.

    • 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London, New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:

      "By the way, are you by any chance the Malone who is expected to get his Rugby cap for Ireland?" "A reserve, perhaps."

    • 2017 November 10, Daniel Taylor, “Youthful England earn draw with Germany but Lingard rues late miss”, in The Guardian (London)‎:

      Overall, though, England’s injury-diminished side coped well on the night when Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Jordan Pickford and Tammy Abraham all won their first caps.

14. (obsolete) The top, or uppermost part; the chief.
    • c. 1605–1608, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii], page 93, column 2:

      Thou art the Cap / Of all the Fooles aliue.

15. (obsolete) A respectful uncovering of the head.
    • 1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church History of Britain, from the Birth of Jesus Christ until the Year MDCXLVIII, volume 1, London: Thomas Tegg and Son, published 1837, page 9:

      He that will give a cap and make a leg, in thanks for a favour he never received, deserveth rather to be blamed for want of wit, than to be praised for store of manners.

16. (zoology) The whole top of the head of a bird from the base of the bill to the nape of the neck.
17. (architecture) The uppermost of any assemblage of parts.

    the cap of column, door, etc.; a capital, coping, cornice, lintel, or plate

18. Something covering the top or end of a thing for protection or ornament.
19. (nautical) A collar of iron or wood used in joining spars, as the mast and the topmast, the bowsprit and the jib boom; also, a covering of tarred canvas at the end of a rope.
20. (geometry) A portion of a spherical or other convex surface.
21. A large size of writing paper.

    flat cap; foolscap; legal cap

22. (Appalachia) Popcorn.

• (general terms): cap-a-pie, cap-apée, capless, caplike, Monmouth Cap (hamlet), uncapped
• (head covering): Ascot cap, bald cap, ballcap, baseball cap, bathing cap, black cap, bouffant cap, Breton cap, bump cap, cap and gown, cap badge, cap in hand, cap money, cap of liberty, cap of maintenance, cap over the windmill, China cap, cloth cap, coon-skin cap, cunt cap, Davy Crockett cap, deerslayer cap, deerstalker cap, dunce cap, dunsel cap, Dutch cap, face cap, Fanny Murray cap, Gandhi cap, gimme cap, feather in one's cap, fitted cap, flat cap, fool's cap, fore-and-aft cap, forage cap, friar's cap, half cap, hand-in-cap, huffcap, hunting cap, if the cap fits, Juliet cap, knit cap, liberty cap, longshoreman's cap, lounging cap, Mickey Mouse cap, mob cap, monkey cap, Monmouth cap, muffin cap, nose cap, overseas cap, Phrygian cap, propeller cap, rally cap, ratting cap, redcap, sea cap, service cap, shingle cap, shower cap, side cap, ski cap, skullcap, smoking cap, stocking cap, swim cap, swimming cap, smoking cap, thinking cap, throw one's cap over the windmill, trencher cap, watch cap, watermelon cap, whitecap, widow's cap, wig cap, wishing cap
• (protective cover or seal): bottle cap, bow cap, cap flashing, cervical cap, crown cap, distributor cap, dust cap, Dutch cap, filler cap, hubcap, jimmy cap, lens cap, Noddy cap, petrol cap, pull-off cap, root cap, screw cap
• (artificial upper limit): cap and trade, interest rate cap, level cap, salary cap, voting cap
• (small amount of explosive used as detonator): bust a cap, cap and ball, percussion cap, pop a cap in someone's ass, snap cap
• (something covering the top or end of a thing): 5′ cap, cap carbonate, cap cloud, cap nut, cap product, cap screw, cap sheet, cap sleeve, cap snatching, cap stealing, cross-cap, end cap, ice cap, kneecap, legal cap, nose cap, polar cap, ribeye cap, rump cap, sirloin cap, snowcap, spherical cap, toecap, turncap
• (head): cradle cap, fuddlecap, madcap
• (toy): cap gun, cap pistol
• (names of mushrooms): candy cap, death cap, inky cap, milk-cap, panther cap, powder cap, saffron milk cap ugly milk-cap, waxy cap
• (other species): elf-cap moss, jockey's cap, Turk's cap lily, Turk's cap

• lid
• set one's cap at

cap (third-person singular simple present caps, present participle capping, simple past and past participle capped)

1. (transitive) To cover or seal with a cap.
2. (transitive) To award a cap as a mark of distinction.
3. (transitive) To lie over or on top of something.
4. (transitive) To surpass or outdo.
5. (transitive) To set (or reach) an upper limit on something.

   cap wages.

   • 2023 September 6, Philip Haigh, “£30 billion plan to transform the rail network in Ireland”, in RAIL, number 991, page 25:

     It recalls the business case for Scotland's reopening of the Borders Railway to Tweedbank, that British Rail closed in 1969. The review says the business case for this was at best borderline, but goes on to say that the case greatly underestimated passenger demand and that the railway Scotland built has capped its capacity.

6. (transitive) To make something even more wonderful at the end.

   That really capped my day.

7. (transitive, cricket) To select a player to play for a specified side.
8. (transitive, slang) To shoot (someone) with a firearm.

   Synonym: pop a cap into

   If he don't get outta my hood, I'm gonna cap his ass.

   In a school shooting, where some kid caps a bunch of other kids, where did he get the weapon? From a family member, probably their gun cabinet.

9. (intransitive, slang, originally African-American Vernacular) To lie; to tell a lie.
   • 1906, Alfred Henry Lewis, “Confessions of a Detective”, in Confessions of a Detective, New York: A.S. Barnes & Company, page 36:

     "How? Didn't I cap for you, an' square you with the examinin' board? Didn't I stake you to the three hundred dollars?"

   • 2003, Antwan Patton et al. (lyrics and music), “Tomb of the Boom”, in Speakerboxxx, performed by OutKast:

     It's over for you capping-ass rappers—get out the game / You can fool the record labels, but not the streets, man

10. (transitive, sports) To select to play for the national team.

    Peter Shilton is the most capped English footballer.

11. (transitive, obsolete) To salute by uncovering the head respectfully.
    • 1852, William Makepeace Thackeray, “I Go to Cambridge, and Do But Little Good There”, in The History of Henry Esmond, Esq. […] , volume I, London: […] Smith, Elder, & Company, […], →OCLC, page 231:

      Tom never miſsed a lecture, and capped the proctor with the profoundeſt of bows.

12. To deprive of a cap.
    • 1596, Edmund Spenser, A View of the State of Ireland as It Was in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, Dublin: Laurence Flin, published 1763, page 50:

      As if one going to diſtrain upon his own Land or Tenement, where lawfully he may; yet if in doing thereof, he tranſgreſs the leaſt Point of the Common Law, he ſtraight committeth Felony. Or if one, by any other Occaſion, take any thing from another, as Boys uſe ſometimes to cap one another, the ſame is ſtraight Felony.

Various clippings

cap (plural caps)

1. (finance) Capitalization.
2. (informal) A capital letter.
3. (electronics) A capacitor.

   Parasitic caps.

   I had to replace the caps in that thing to get it to work again.

4. (colloquial) A recording or screenshot (shortening of "capture").
   • 1996 December 9, Fox [username], “Anyone has a cap of yesterday's irc-convention on undernet ?”, in alt.paranet.ufo‎ (Usenet):
   • 1998 September 26, Mr Hanky [username] <meister_hanky@hotmail.com>, “req: does anyone have a cap of Gabby's behind from "Forget Me Not"”, in alt.tv.xena‎ (Usenet), retrieved August 7, 2016:

     If you have a cap of Gabby's bare butt from the "forget me not" episode please post or mail it...

   • 1998 April 27, Johan [username], “Jennifer on Letterman”, in alt.fan.jen-aniston‎ (Usenet), retrieved August 7, 2016:

     Here's a cap of Jennifer from her latest Letterman appearance […]

   • 2000 March 4, RichieH [username], “Please somebody get a cap of Faye from steps at the Brits!!!!!!!!”, in alt.tv.shaggable.babes‎ (Usenet):

     Please be assured that when I do get around to capping the Brits, there will NOT be one single cap of that slutty bitch, her whorishness has dropped to even lower levels than before.

   Anyone have a cap of the games last night?

5. (slang) A capsule of a drug.
   • 2012, Alex Wyndham Baker, Cursive:

     Glass bottles of liquid LSD; moist blocks of Manali charras and Malana cream; sachets of smack; a hundred caps of MDMA and a phial of Australian DMT; ampoules of medical morphine and a dense pad of four thousand Californian blotters.

6. (colloquial) A capitalist.
7. (anatomy) A capillary

• (capitalization): cap table, large cap, market cap, mega cap, small-cap
• (capital letter): drop cap
• (recording or screenshot): mo-cap
• (capsule): cap up
• (capitalist): an-cap, anticap
• (capillary): cap refill

cap (third-person singular simple present caps, present participle capping, simple past and past participle capped)

1. (transitive, informal) To convert text to uppercase.
2. (transitive) To take a screenshot or to record a copy of a video.
   • 2001 December 3, Methos [username], alt.fan.televisionx‎ (Usenet):

     I've capped in VCD format, so will eventually post it to abme (I've since found out that it's a bit OT for this group)

   • 2002 June 11, test . com Ground Hog [username], alt.luser.recovery‎ (Usenet):

     Please tell me someone capped it!!!!

   • 2003 February 18, jacuk [username], alt.fan.pornstar.darrian‎ (Usenet):

     If I had a method of capping from video tapes there's a movie that I can no longer remember the name of which has a single scene with Racquel and Derrick as a newly married couple having sex under the lustful eyes of Joey Silvera.

3. (transitive, video games) To take capture an objective, such as a flag or checkpoint.
   • 2007 November 20, Greg Haupt, “LvUrFR3NZ”, in Halo 3 Original Soundtrack‎, performed by Princeton, Sumthing Else Music Works:

     Call your friends and bring a gun / The Halo revolution's on / Capping flags and arming bombs / Yes, we don't blink until we're done

• (take a screenshot or record a video): mo-cap

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.

cap (plural caps)

1. (obsolete) A wooden drinking-bowl with two handles.

• ACP, APC, CPA, PAC, PAc, PCA, Pac, Pac.

From Vulgar Latin capus, from Latin caput. Plural form capiti from Latin capita. Compare Romanian cap.

cap n (plural capiti/capite)

1. head

• cãpic
• cãpos

• capã

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencian) [ˈkap]
• Rhymes: -ap

Inherited from Vulgar Latin capus (“head, chief”), from Latin caput (“head, etc.”), from Proto-Italic *kaput, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kauput-, *káput. Compare Occitan cap. Compare also French personne (which can mean either "person" or "nobody").

cap m (plural caps)

1. (anatomy) head
2. boss, chief, leader

   cap d'estat ― head of state

3. (geography) cape (piece of land)
4. (heraldry) chief
5. end

   cap de setmana ― weekend

cap (invariable)

1. no, not any (usually with no or other negative particle)

   No hi ha cap iogurt de maduixa.

   There is no strawberry yogurt.

   • 2019 August 21, Rosa M. Bravo, “La demanda de tractament per deixar la cocaïna creix”, in El Punt Avui‎:

     A més, 3.500 persones han passat per les sales de consum ateses per professionals, on cap de les 214 sobredosis ha estat mortal.

     Additionally, 3,500 people have passed through the [drug] use rooms tended by professionals, where none of the 214 overdoses has been fatal.

2. any (in questions and suppositions)

   Que hi falta cap peça?

   Is there any missing piece?

cap

1. none, not one (usually with no or other negative particle)

   no n'hi ha cap de maduixa

   there is not any strawberry flavoured one

2. anyone (in questions and suppositions)

   que en falta cap? ― is there anyone missing?

cap

1. towards, to

• cap a
• capdamunt
• capdavall
• capdavant

• acabar

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

cap

1. inflection of cabre:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

• “cap” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “cap”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
• “cap” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “cap” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

From English cap.

cap (Hong Kong Cantonese)

1. Used in cap帽 (“cap; hat”).
2. upper limit; upper bound

Clipping of English capture.

cap (Hong Kong Cantonese)

1. to screenshot or record

   cap低 [Cantonese]  ―  kep¹ dai¹ [Jyutping]  ―  to save a screenshot

2. to obtain or accumulate money

Clipping of English capacitor.

cap (Hong Kong Cantonese)

1. capacitor (Classifier: 粒 c)

• 反cap

Borrowed from Occitan cap, from Latin caput. Doublet of chef.

• IPA^(key): /kap/

• Audio

  (file)

cap m (plural caps)

1. (geography) cape
2. (archaic) head
3. (nautical) heading
4. (figuratively) goal, direction, course

   Synonym: cible

   cap stratégique ― strategic course

5. (Quebec, geography) cap (summit of a mountain)

• cap glacé
• de pied en cap

• “cap”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• PAC

• IPA^(key): [ˈt͡ʃap]
• Hyphenation: cap

• Ultimately from Indo-Aryan. Compare Hindi छाप (chāp), Gujarati છાપ (chāp), Bengali ছাপ (chap), English chop all meaning stamp, seal.
• Probably become Chinese 劄 (zhá, “letter, brief note”) through phono-semantic matching.

cap (first-person possessive capku, second-person possessive capmu, third-person possessive capnya)

1. seal, stamp.

   Synonyms: stempel, tera

2. record.

   Synonym: rekaman

3. printing.

   Synonyms: cetak, cetakan

4. trademark.

   Synonyms: merk dagang, etiket

5. (figurative) characteristic.

   Synonyms: ciri, sifat

• cop: nonstandard Indonesian, standard Malay

Onomatopoeic.

cap (first-person possessive capku, second-person possessive capmu, third-person possessive capnya)

1. sound of tongue smacking

   Synonym: kecap

• “cap” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

cap

1. seal, stamp

• IPA^(key): /t͡ʃap/, /t͡ɕap/

cap

1. Classifier for fruit.

• Hkaw Luk (2017) A grammatical sketch of Lacid‎, Chiang Mai: Payap University (master thesis)

From English chop (“An official stamp or seal, as in China and India”), from Indo-Aryan, either Hindi छाप (chāp), Gujarati છાપ (chāp), Bengali ছাপ (chap) all meaning stamp, seal. Doublet of cop.

• IPA^(key): [ˈt͡ʃap]
• Rhymes: -ap

cap

1. seal; stamp
2. brand

• cǫp

From Vulgar Latin capus, from Latin caput[1]. Compare Romanian cap.

cap n (plural capiti)

1. head

• Atasanov, Petar (1990) Le mégléno-roumain de nos jours: Une approche linguistique, Hamburg: Buske

cap

1. Alternative form of cappe

Borrowed from Old Occitan cap.

cap m (plural caps)

1. head
   • 1369-1400, Jean Froissart, Chroniques

     Armez de pié en cap

     Armed from head to toe

• French: cap
• → English: cape

From Old Occitan cap, from Vulgar Latin capus, from Latin caput.

• IPA^(key): /kap/

• Audio

  (file)

cap m (plural caps)

1. head (the part of the body of an animal or human which contains the brain, mouth and main sense organs)
2. leader, chief, mastermind
3. cape, headland

• cap d'estat
• cap de còla

• acabar

• IPA^(key): /t͡sap/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ap
• Syllabification: cap

Borrowed from Romanian țap, possibly from Albanian cjap.

cap m animal

1. billy-goat
2. buck (male of an antlered animal)
3. (colloquial, derogatory) lecherous man
4. (colloquial) bearded man

Onomatopoeic.

cap

1. sound of a violent grabbing of someone or something

   Synonym: łap

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

cap

1. second-person singular imperative of capić

• cap in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• cap in Polish dictionaries at PWN

• IPA^(key): /ˈkap/
• Rhymes: -àp

• Audio

  (file)

Inherited from Vulgar Latin capus, from Latin caput, from Proto-Italic *kaput, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kauput-, *káput. Plural form capete from Latin capita. Compare the doublet șef, borrowed from French.

cap n (plural capete)

1. head

• căpetenie
• căpos
• căpușă
• în ruptul capului

Borrowed from French cap.

cap n (plural capuri)

1. cape (headland)

• IPA^(key): [t͡sap]

cap m anim (genitive singular capa, nominative plural capy, genitive plural capov, feminine koza), declension pattern chlap for singular, dub for plural

1. a male goat, he-goat, billygoat

• capí

• “cap”, in Slovníkový portál Jazykovedného ústavu Ľ. Štúra SAV [Dictionary portal of the Ľ. Štúr Institute of Linguistics, Slovak Academy of Science] (in Slovak), https://slovnik.juls.savba.sk, 2024

• IPA^(key): /tʃɑ́p/

cap

1. fur