nightcap
US/ˈnaɪtˌkæp/
nightcap noun: a warm cloth cap worn while sleeping, often with pajamas, being common attire in northern Europe before effective home heating became widespread.
Noun
nightcap (plural nightcaps)
- A warm cloth cap worn while sleeping, often with pajamas, being common attire in northern Europe before effective home heating became widespread.
- Winston wore a nightcap to stave off the cold.
- A beverage drunk before bed that is usually alcoholic.
- I'll make myself a nightcap of whisky and lemon before heading to bed.
- 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.1980 August 2, Andrea F. Loewenstein, “Random Lust”, in Gay Community News, page 14
- Something that a person reads or listens to before bed.
- "[…] and as a nightcap I happened to pick the copy of Plato […]"1920, Granville Stanley Hall, Recreations of a Psychologist
- The final match of a sporting contest, especially the second game of a baseball doubleheader.
- A cap drawn over the face of the condemned person before they are hanged.
Verb
nightcap (third-person singular simple present nightcaps, present participle nightcapping, simple past and past participle nightcapped)
- To drink an alcoholic beverage shortly before retiring to bed.
- 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, […]2010, Mark Decarlo, Fork on the Road: 400 Cities/One Stomach, page 229
- We nightcapped at the Four Seasons Hotel George V, on the most extravagant cocktails I'd ever purchased in life.2020, Mitchell Jackson, Survival Math: Notes on an All-American Family, page 143
Proper noun capitalized: Nightcap
Nightcap
- A locality in the Byron council area and the Lismore council area, north-eastern New South Wales, Australia.
nightcap meaning in Bengali and Malayalam
nightcap in Bengali
- ঘুমানোর আগে শেষ পানীয়
nightcap in Malayalam
- രാത്രി ധരിക്കുന്ന ഒരിനം തൊപ്പി
Examples of nightcap in a sentence
- We knocked on the door, and a nightcapped head appeared at the window.
- Boston split with Philadelphia in a doubleheader, winning the first game 3-1 before losing 2-0 in the nightcap.
- Sgt. White asks the judge to authorize a nightcapped warrant because there is a considerable risk to the officers executing the search warrant.
Forms of nightcap
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | nightcaps |
| alternative form | night cap |
| alternative form | night-cap |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | nightcaps |
| present participle | nightcapping |
| past participle | nightcapped |
| past | nightcapped |
Origin of nightcap
From night + cap.
Words formed from nightcap
Questions about nightcap
- What does nightcap mean?
- Nightcap means a warm cloth cap worn while sleeping, often with pajamas, being common attire in northern Europe before effective home heating became widespread.
- What is nightcap in Bengali?
- Nightcap in Bengali is ঘুমানোর আগে শেষ পানীয়. See Nightcap meaning in Bengali.
- What part of speech is nightcap?
- Nightcap can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce nightcap?
- Nightcap is pronounced /ˈnaɪtˌkæp/ (US).
- What is the plural of nightcap?
- The plural of nightcap is nightcaps.
Words near nightcap in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: nightcap (page history and authors); Nightcap (page history and authors); nightcap (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); nightcap (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors). 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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-nightcap.wav.
Cite this entry: “nightcap.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/nightcap. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.