or capers, verbal phr. (colloquial).—To play a trick or prank; to behave boisterously or fantastically. [From CUT, a verb of action, + CAPER (q.v.), a freakish proceeding or prank.] Cf., CUT DIDOES. Fr., battre un huit.
1602. SHAKESPEARE, Twelfth Night, Act i., Sc. 3. Sir And. Faith, I can CUT A CAPER.
c. 1626. Dick of Devonshire, in Bullen’s Old Plays, ii., 68. Pike, Could I shake those chaines off I would CUTT CAPERS: poore Dick Pike would dance though Death pip’d to him.
1712. Spectator, No. 324. Others are called the dancing-masters, and teach their scholars to CUT CAPERS by running swords through their legs.
1751. SMOLLETT, Peregrine Pickle, ch. lxxxvii. He … hied him home to his bride, to communicate his happiness, CUTTING CAPERS, and talking to himself all the way.
1780. HANNAH COWLEY, The Belle’s Stratagem, Act iv., Sc. 1. Har. Why, isn’t it a shame to see so many stout, well-built young fellows, masquerading and cutting courantas here at home—instead of making the French CUT CAPERS to the tune of your cannon—or sweating the Spaniards with an English fandango?
1843. DICKENS, Martin Chuzzlewit, ch. xx., p. 208. Jonas only laughed at this, and getting down from the coach-top with great alacrity, CUT a cumbersome kind of CAPER in the road.
