nightcap

• night cap, night-cap

night +‎ cap

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈnaɪtˌkæp/

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nightcap (plural nightcaps)

1. A warm cloth cap worn while sleeping, often with pajamas, being common attire in northern Europe before effective home heating became widespread. [From 14th c.]

   Winston wore a nightcap to stave off the cold.

2. A beverage drunk before bed that is usually alcoholic. [From 1818.]
   • 1980 August 2, Andrea F. Loewenstein, “Random Lust”, in Gay Community News, page 14:

     You know the other night, when I had dinner with Afro-Dite? When Jo was in San Francisco? Well we dropped into the Sinners, right, just for a nightcap.

   I'll make myself a nightcap of whisky and lemon before heading to bed.

3. (by extension, figuratively) Something that a person reads or listens to before bed.
   • 1920, Granville Stanley Hall, Recreations of a Psychologist‎:

     " […] and as a nightcap I happened to pick the copy of Plato […] "

4. (US, sports, baseball) The final match of a sporting contest, especially the second game of a baseball doubleheader. [From 1939.]
5. (historical) A cap drawn over the face of the condemned person before they are hanged.

• nightcapped
• nightcap oak

nightcap (third-person singular simple present nightcaps, present participle nightcapping, simple past and past participle nightcapped)

1. (intransitive) To drink an alcoholic beverage shortly before retiring to bed.
   • 2010, Mark Decarlo, Fork on the Road: 400 Cities/One Stomach, page 229:

     Even better than breakfast, though, is nightcapping at the Waffle House . Nightcapping happens after the bars close, but before the southern sunrise: the hours when their jukeboxes play “Freebird” on a continual loop, […]

   • 2020, Mitchell Jackson, Survival Math: Notes on an All-American Family, page 143:

     We nightcapped at the Four Seasons Hotel George V, on the most extravagant cocktails I'd ever purchased in life.

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