[f. CAP sb.1]
1. trans. To provide or cover with a cap; to put a cap on (a person, or his head); esp. as the sign of conferring a University degree (in Scotland). Also to cap about.
1483. Cath. Angl., 54. To Cappe, cappare.
a. 1529. Skelton, Elynour Rum., in Harl. Misc. (Malh.), III. 479. With her clothes on her hed … like an Egyptian Capped about.
1620. Venner, Via Recta (1650), 302. Not by over much wrapping and capping the head.
1881. Hist. Glasgow, lvi. 468. Their royal Highnesses were duly capped.
1883. W. C. Smith, N. Country Folk, 44. When at length he was capped, the town Gathered to see him.
b. To put a cap on (the nipple of a gun).
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., I. xxix. 387. While the men were loading and capping anew.
1872. Baker, Nile Tribut., xviii. 318. I had capped the nipples.
2. To cover as with a cap or capping.
1602. Carew, Cornwall, 115/2. When the top of Hengsten is capped with a cloud.
1691. T. H[ale], Acc. New Invent., 82. To Capp the Bolt-heads with Lead.
1750. W. Ellis, Mod. Husbandm., V. i. 28. Cap, to cover a sheaf at the top.
1853. G. Johnston, Nat. Hist. E. Bord., 109. The turf has been pared off to cap stone-dikes.
b. To cover at the end; to protect the end of.
1794. Rigging & Seamanship, I. 163. To Cap a rope, to cover the end with tarred canvas.
1823. P. Nicholson, Pract. Build., 264. The extremities of beams, &c., have sometimes been capped with melted pitch.
1857. Chambers, Inform. People, II. 703/1. Capping the end of the oar with the hand has a very awkward appearance.
3. To form, or serve as, a cap, covering, or top to; to crown; to overlie, lie on the top of.
1808. J. Barlow, Columb., III. 153. Columns of smoke, that cap the rumbling height.
1830. Lyell, Princ. Geol., I. 58. The basalts … consisted of tabular masses capping the hills.
1855. Browning, Fra Lippo Lippi. Lodging with a friend … In the house that caps the corner.
1878. B. Taylor, Deukalion, IV. iv. 160. One block Shall cap the pediment.
b. To serve as a cover or wrapping for. ? Obs.
1735. Pope, Ep. Lady, 38. One common fate all imitators share, To save mince-pyes, and cap the grocer’s ware.
4. To overtop, excel, outdo, surpass, beat. (At first north. dial.)
1821. Mrs. Wheeler, Westmld. Dial., Pref. 9. He wod giv a supper … if they cud cap him wie onny six words.
1848. C. Brontë, Jane Eyre (1857), 386. ‘Well!… that caps the globe.’
1857. Gen. P. Thompson, Audi Alt., I. xix. 68. There is one story, which caps all the records religious war … can produce.
1876. Green, Short Hist., ix. § 4 (1882), 637. Oates capped the revelations of Bedloe by charging the Queen herself … with knowledge of the plot.
b. dial. To pass the comprehension of; to puzzle, bring to one’s wit’s end.
1736. Bailey, To Cap one, to put him to a non-plus.
1857. Heavysege, Saul (1869), 167. ’Twould cap a monkey To say what I have gathered.
1863. Mrs. Toogood, Yorksh. Dial., It caps me how t’ old man gets his work done.
c. Hence phrases, To cap the climax, to cap all.
1836. W. Irving, Astoria, III. 160. He capped the climax of this … intelligence, by informing them that [etc.].
1863. Cornh. Mag., VII. 323. As if to cap the climax of mismanagement.
5. To cap an anecdote, proverb, quotation, etc.: to follow it up with another, a better, or one which serves as a set-off; to quote alternately in emulation or contest, so as to try who can have the last word. To cap verses: to reply to one previously quoted with another, that begins with the final or initial letter of the first, or that rhymes or otherwise corresponds with it.
1584. Peele, Arraignm. Paris, IV. ii. (1829), 48. Sh’ ath capt his answer in the cue.
1599. Shaks., Hen. V., II. vii. 124. Orleance. Ill will neuer sayd well. Const. I will cap that Prouerbe with, There is flatterie in friendship.
1606. Bp. W. Barlow, Serm. (1607), D 2 b. Had he bin to sit in the Consistory, only to cap voices, himself hauing no negatiue [etc.].
1612. Brinsley, Lud. Lit., 300. Or if time permit, sometime to cap verses.
1702. Eng. Theophrast., 59. He thinks the Roman Poets good for nothing but for Boys to cap verses.
1741. Richardson, Pamela (1824), I. 145. Don’t think we are capping compliments as we used to do verses at school.
1856. R. Vaughan, Mystics (1860), I. I. v. 32. Now you come to Shakspeare, I must cap your quotation with another.
6. To place or put on as or like a cap.
1612. T. James, Jesuits’ Downef., 29–30. The Iesuits are iolly fellowes to cap crownes.
1823. New Monthly Mag., VII. 494. The hood will just cap itself over the horse’s ears.
† 7. To take away the cap from (a person). Obs.
1553. T. Wilson, Rhet., 92 b. Boyes … will saye … Sir I wyll cappe you if you use me thus … meanynge that he will take his cappe from him.
1693. W. Robertson, Phraseol. Gen., 307. To cap one, or take away his hat.
8. intr. To take off the cap in token of respect; also, To cap it. Const. to (a person), whence indirect passive to be capped to.
1555. Bradford, in Strype, Eccl. Mem., III. App. xlv. 134. You must cappe to him in all places.
a. 1564. Becon, Humble Supplic., in Prayers (1844), 238. They alone be capped, kneeled, and crouched to.
1687. in Magd. Coll. & Jas. II. (1886), 216. They have denied any power over them in that College, and do refuse to cap.
1863. Sala, Capt. Danger., III. iv. 115. Soon I was well known and Capped to.
b. trans. (by omission of to).
a. 1591. H. Smith, Serm. (1871), I. 205. How would they cap me if I were in velvets.
1763–5. Churchill, Author, Poems II. 2. And cap the fool, whose merit is his Place.
1850. Thackeray, Pendennis, I. xviii. He and the Proctor capped each other as they met.
9. Of a horse: To cap the hock: to injure, and hence cause a swelling at, the point of the hock.
1886. Sat. Rev., 6 March, Horse-idiocy, 327/2. Capable of exercising, sufficient discretion … to refrain from capping his own hocks.
