Word.ws English Dictionary

cap

UK/kæp/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/kap/

cap noun: a close-fitting hat, either brimless or peaked. Also the clipping of capture.

Noun (1)

cap (plural caps)

  1. A close-fitting hat, either brimless or peaked.
    • The children were all wearing caps to protect them from the sun.
    • That elf-maiden smote with her hand so white,
      “Sorrow and sickness on thee alight”
      That elf-maiden smote with her cap so small,
      “No more shall priest's benison on thee fall!”1847 September 11, William J. Thoms, “The Folk-lore of Shakespeare”, in The Athenaeum, London, page 958, column 1
  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.
    • We should put a cap on the salaries, to keep them under control.
    • 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.2022 September 2, Alex Lawson, “G7 countries agree plan to impose price cap on Russian oil”, in The Guardian
    Antonyms:
    floor
  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.
    • Did he think they were going to put a cap in his ass right in the middle of Metreon?2001, Charles Jade, Jade goes to Metreon
  12. (slang) A lie or exaggeration.
    • no cap
    • that’s cap
Show 10 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. A place on a national team; an international appearance.
    • Rio Ferdinand won his 50th cap for England in a game against Sweden.
    • "By the way, are you by any chance the Malone who is expected to get his Rugby cap for Ireland?" "A reserve, perhaps."1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC
  2. (obsolete) The top, or uppermost part; the chief.
    • Thou art the Cap / Of all the Fooles aliue.c. 1605–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
  3. (obsolete) A respectful uncovering of the head.
    • 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.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
  4. The whole top of the head of a bird from the base of the bill to the nape of the neck.
  5. The uppermost of any assemblage of parts.
    • the cap of a column, door, etc.; a capital, coping, cornice, lintel, or plate
  6. Something covering the top or end of a thing for protection or ornament.
  7. 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.
  8. A portion of a spherical or other convex surface.
  9. A large size of writing paper.
    • flat cap; foolscap; legal cap
  10. (Appalachia) Popcorn.

Verb (1)

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.
    1. (broadly, slang, transitive) To paint over someone else's piece or tag.
  4. (transitive) To surpass or outdo.
  5. (transitive) To set (or reach) an upper limit on something.
    • to cap wages
    • 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...2023 September 6, Philip Haigh, “£30 billion plan to transform the rail network in Ireland”, in RAIL, number 991, page 25
  6. (figuratively, transitive) To conclude; to make something even more wonderful at the end.
    • That really capped my day.
    • Ms. Yaccarino’s exit caps a tumultuous period at X, which was previously called Twitter and has been remade in Mr. Musk’s image since he bought the platform for $44 billion in 2022.2025 July 9, Mike Isaac, Kate Conger, “X CEO Linda Yaccarino Says She Is Leaving Elon Musk’s Platform”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
  7. (transitive) To select a player to play for a specified side.
  8. (slang, transitive) To shoot (someone) with a firearm.
    • 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) To lie; to tell a lie.
    • "How? Didn’t I cap for you, an’ square you with the examinin’ board? Didn’t I stake you to the three hundred dollars?"1906, Alfred Henry Lewis, “Confessions of a Detective”, in Confessions of a Detective, New York: A.S. Barnes & Company, page 36
    • It’s over for you capping-ass rappers—get out the game / You can fool the record labels, but not the streets, man2003, Antwan Patton et al., “Tomb of the Boom”, in Speakerboxxx, performed by OutKast
  10. (transitive) To select to play for the national team.
    • Peter Shilton is the most capped English footballer.
  11. (obsolete, transitive) To salute by uncovering the head respectfully.
    • Tom never miſsed a lecture, and capped the proctor with the profoundeſt of bows.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
    • Indeed, as the astonished small boys "capped" him on his way to nine o'clock "absence," he wore an expression of delight bordering on playfulness, which, coming from one of such firm and commanding features, was immensely striking.1909, William Hill Tucker, Eton Memories, page 128
  12. To deprive of a cap.
    • 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...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

Noun (2)

cap (plural caps)

  1. Capitalization.
  2. (informal) A capital letter.
  3. A capacitor.
    • parasitic caps
    • I had to replace the caps in that thing to get it to work again.
  4. (slang) A capsule of a drug.
    • 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.2012, Alex Wyndham Baker, Cursive
  5. (colloquial) A capitalist.
  6. A capillary.
  7. A caption.
  8. (informal) A cappuccino.

Verb (2)

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

  1. (informal, transitive) To convert text to uppercase.
  2. (transitive) To take a screenshot or to record a copy of a video.
    • 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)2001 December 3, Methos [username], alt.fan.televisionx (Usenet)
    • Please tell me someone capped it!!!!2002 June 11, test . com Ground Hog [username], alt.luser.recovery (Usenet)
  3. (transitive) To capture an objective, such as a flag or checkpoint.
    • 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 done2007 November 20, Greg Haupt, “LvUrFR3NZ”, in Halo 3 Original Soundtrack, performed by Princeton, Sumthing Else Music Works
  4. (intransitive, transitive) To capitulate (cause to capitulate) an opponent.

Noun (3)

cap (plural caps)

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

Noun (4) capitalized: CAP

CAP (countable and uncountable, plural CAPs)

  1. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of conservation action plan.
  2. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of catabolite activator protein.
  3. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of community-acquired pneumonia.
  4. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of consistency, availability, partition-tolerance, three irreconcilable guarantees in distributed systems, a result known as Brewer's theorem.
  5. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of combat air patrol.
  6. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of change acceleration process.
  7. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of cold atmospheric plasma.
  8. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of colors and placements.

Proper noun (1) capitalized: CAP

CAP

  1. (European-Union, abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Common Agricultural Policy.
    • The fact remains that if Ukraine joins, the CAP budget will either have to be increased dramatically or will evaporate, given the sheer area of agricultural land in Ukraine (it’s bigger than the whole of Italy), with the average farm taking up about 1,000 hectares compared to 16 hectares in the...2023 September 30, Patrick Wintour, quoting Marija Golubeva, “‘No turning back’: how the Ukraine war has profoundly changed the EU”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
  2. (US, abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Civil Air Patrol.
  3. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Colleague Assistance Program.

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Cap

Cap

  1. A nickname for the captain of a team, ship, etc.
    • "But listen, Cap!" he protested, momentarily falling out of his role as Midshipman Hornblower. "I haven't got any place else to go! This is where I sleep, where else do you want me to write my letters?"1967, Jan de Hartog, The Captain
    • Yeah, and now you're dreamin', Cap.2015 November 23, Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, “Dulcinea”, in The Expanse, season 1, episode 1, spoken by Jim Holden (Steven Strait)
  2. A nickname for a man generally.
    • ‘Hi Cap! Is that the moving picture ship?’1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 2
    • “I'd take Vernon Dewey for my team any day.” “And their quarterback can throw,” Cap pointed out. “But we did all right, huh, Grandpa?” “You did fine,” Tully replied. “All of you did real well.” “Cap, you can throw ...”2009, Matt Christopher, Long Arm Quarterback: A New Football Team Sparks an Old Rivalry, →ISBN

Noun (5) capitalized: Cap

Cap (plural Caps)

  1. (abbreviation, clipping, informal) Clipping of Capricorn.
    • Caps are also naturally inclined towards stability and security—they're totally different from noncommittal Sagittarius men. If you're looking for someone who's ready to commit rather than stay in a situationship, odds are that he might be a Capricorn.2022 December 8, Jake Register, “Everything You Need to Know About Dating a Capricorn Man”, in Cosmopolitan

Also used as

cap is also the clipping of capture.

cap meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Bengali and Malayalam

cap in Hindi

head covering
टोपी ṭopī

cap in Marathi

protective cover or seal
टोपण ṭopaṇ
head covering
टोपी ṭopī

cap in Bengali

ক্যাপ, ক্যাপ করা

cap in Malayalam

protective cover or seal
അടപ്പ് aṭappŭ, മൂടി mūṭi
head covering
തൊപ്പി toppi
More languagesFewer languages
cap in Odia
କ୍ଯ଼ାପ୍, କ୍ଯ଼ାପ
cap in Tagalog
gora
cap in Arabic
قُبَّعَة qubbaʕa, قُبَّعة gubbaʕa, كاب kāb, kāp
cap in Malay
puncak
cap in Persian
کلاه kolâh, کاسکت kâsket
cap in Thai
ฝา fǎa, เพดาน pee-daan, หมวกแก๊ป
cap in Vietnamese
mũ lưỡi trai, nón lưỡi trai
cap in Myanmar
ကက်ဦးထုပ် kak-u:htup

Examples of cap in a sentence

  • 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.2017 November 10, Daniel Taylor, “Youthful England earn draw with Germany but Lingard rues late miss”, in The Guardian (London):
  • 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.2023 September 6, Philip Haigh, “£30 billion plan to transform the rail network in Ireland”, in RAIL, number 991, page 25:
  • 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.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...

All 40 example sentences with cap

Synonyms of cap

Antonyms

Forms of cap

Noun
pluralcaps
alternative form🧢
pluralCAPs
pluralCaps
Verb
third-person singular presentcaps
present participlecapping
past participlecapped
pastcapped

Past tense of cap: capped

Plural of cap: caps

Origin of cap

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.

Words formed from cap

Phrases with cap

147 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with cap

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about cap

What does cap mean?
Cap means a close-fitting hat, either brimless or peaked.
What is cap in Hindi?
Cap in Hindi is टोपी (ṭopī). See Cap meaning in Hindi.
How do you use cap in a sentence?
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.
What part of speech is cap?
Cap can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce cap?
Cap is pronounced /kæp/ (UK).
What is the plural of cap?
The plural of cap is caps.

Words near cap in the dictionary

  1. caoutchin
  2. caoutchouc
  3. caoutchoucin
  4. caoutchoucs
  5. caoxite
  6. cap
  7. cap and ball
  8. cap and bells
  9. cap and gown
  10. cap and trade
  11. cap badge

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cap (page history and authors); CAP (page history and authors); Cap (page history and authors); cap (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cap (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-cap.ogg.

Cite this entry: “cap.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cap. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.