• IPA: /kæp/, [kʰæp]

cap (plural caps)

1. A close-fitting hat, either brimless or peaked.

   hypo en

   The children were all wearing caps to protect them from the sun.

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.

   Antonyms: floor

   We should put a cap on the salaries, to keep them under control.

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.
    • 2001, Charles Jade, Jade goes to Metreon ↗

      Did he think they were going to put a cap in his ass right in the middle of Metreon?

12. (soccer) An international appearance.

    Rio Ferdinand won his 50th cap for England in a game against Sweden.

13. (obsolete) The top, or uppermost part; the chief.
    • c. 1605–1608, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act IV, scene 3], page 93 ↗, column 2:

      Thou art the Cap / Of all the Fooles aliue.

14. (obsolete) A respectful uncovering of the head.
15. (zoology) The whole top of the head of a bird from the base of the bill to the nape of the neck.
16. (architecture) The uppermost of any assemblage of parts.

    the cap of column, door, etc.; a capital, coping, cornice, lintel, or plate

17. Something covering the top or end of a thing for protection or ornament.
18. (nautical) 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.
19. (geometry) A portion of a spherical or other convex surface.
20. A large size of writing paper.

    flat cap; foolscap; legal cap

21. (AAVE) A lie or exaggeration.

    no cap

• French: bonnet, casquette, (Quebec) tuque
• German: Mütze
• Italian: cuffia, cappuccio, berretto, berretta, cofia
• Portuguese: boné, ^{(please verify)} barrete (pt) m (1), ^{(please verify)} quepe (pt) m (2)
• Russian: ке́пка
• Spanish: gorro (without peak), gorra (with peak), cofia (nurse, waitress)

• Italian: cappello, berretto, bustina
• Russian: фура́жка

• French: chapeau, mortier
• Italian: tocco

• French: capsule, bouchon, capuchon, couvercle, opercule
• Italian: chiusura, chiusura di sicurezza, coppa, cappuccio, tappo
• Russian: колпачо́к

• French: couronne
• Italian: corona, capsula
• Russian: коро́нка

• French: sommet, cime
• Italian: cima

• French: plafond
• German: Obergrenze
• Italian: tetto
• Russian: ограниче́ние

• French: chapeau, tête, carpophore (scientific), pileus (scientific)
• German: Hut
• Italian: cappella
• Russian: шля́пка

• Italian: capsula
• Russian: писто́н
• Spanish: fulminante

• Russian: ка́псюль
• Spanish: fulminante, detonante

• French: calotte

• Portuguese: convocação

cap (caps, present participle capping; 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.
4. (transitive) To surpass or outdo.
5. (transitive) To set an upper limit on something.

   cap wages.

6. (transitive) To make something even more wonderful at the end.

   That really capped my day.

7. (transitive, cricket) To select a player to play for a specified side.
8. (transitive, slang) 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. (transitive, sports) To select to play for the national team.

   Peter Shilton is the most capped English footballer.

10. (transitive, obsolete) To salute by uncovering the head respectfully.
    • 1852, William Makepeace Thackeray, “I Go to Cambridge, and Do But Little Good There”, in The History of Henry Esmond, Esq. […] In Three Volumes, volume I, London: Printed for Smith, Elder, & Company, […], OCLC 1003921571 ↗, page 231 ↗:

      Tom never miſsed a lecture, and capped the proctor with the profoundeſt of bows.

11. To deprive of a cap.
12. (African American Vernacular English) To tell a lie.

cap (plural caps)

1. (finance) Capitalization.

cap (plural caps)

1. (informal) An uppercase letter.

cap (caps, present participle capping; past and past participle capped)

1. (transitive, informal) To convert text to uppercase.

cap (plural caps)

1. (electronics) capacitor

   Parasitic caps.

cap (plural caps)

1. (colloquial) A recording or screenshot.

   Anyone have a cap of the games last night?

cap (caps, present participle capping; past and past participle capped)

1. (transitive) To take a screenshot or to record a copy of a video.

cap (plural caps)

1. (slang) A capsule of a drug.
   • 2012, Alex Wyndham Baker, Cursive

     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.

cap (plural caps)

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

cap

1. Acronym of catabolite activator protein
2. (medicine) Acronym of community-acquired pneumonia
3. (comptheory) Acronym of consistency, availability, partition-tolerance, three irreconcilable guarantees in distributed systems, a result known as Brewer's theorem.
4. Acronym of combat air patrol
5. Acronym of change acceleration process
6. Acronym of colors and placements

1. (European Union) Acronym of Common Agricultural Policy
2. (US) Acronym of Civil Air Patrol
3. Acronym of Colleague Assistance Program

1. A nickname for the captain of a team, ship, etc.
   • 1967, Jan de Hartog, The Captain

     "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?"

2. A nickname for a man generally.
   • 2009, Matt Christopher, Long Arm Quarterback: A New Football Team Sparks an Old Rivalry (ISBN 9780316093989):

     “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 ...”

   • 2018, Ken Kenthomas, Mr. Black Johnson She Worshiped (ISBN 9781641384230):

     “Well, Cap, you seem to be a nice gentleman from a good family, but I wished you had come to me and my wife and talked to me before you two started making all these decisions.”