cape

• enPR: kāp, IPA^(key): /keɪp/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪp

Borrowed from Middle French cap, from Occitan cap, from Latin caput (“head”). Doublet of caput, chef, and chief, and distantly with head.

cape (plural capes)

1. (geography) A piece or point of land, extending beyond the adjacent coast into a sea or lake; a promontory; a headland.

   Synonyms: chersonese, peninsula, point

From French cape, from Old Occitan capa, from Late Latin cappa (“cape”). The second sense ("superhero") is metonymic from the fact that many superheroes wear capes. Likewise, the verb sense "defend, praise" alludes to the stereotypical depiction of superheroes wearing capes when they come to people's defense. (Compare caped crusader and cape (“a superhero”).) Doublet of capa and cappa.

A young woman in a crocheted cape.

cape (plural capes)

1. A sleeveless garment or part of a garment, hanging from the neck over the back, arms, and shoulders.
   • 1977, Agatha Christie, chapter 4, in An Autobiography, part II, London: Collins, →ISBN:

     Mind you, clothes were clothes in those days. […]  Frills, ruffles, flounces, lace, complicated seams and gores: not only did they sweep the ground and have to be held up in one hand elegantly as you walked along, but they had little capes or coats or feather boas.

2. (slang) A superhero.
   • 2017, April Daniels, Dreadnought: Nemesis - Book One, Diversion Books, →ISBN:

     Rows and rows of booths and pavilions stretch across the floor, draped with glowing holograms and shifting signs beckoning capes to try their wares. Bystander insurance. Hypertech components. Mystical ingredients. Training DVDs ...

• cloak

cape (third-person singular simple present capes, present participle caping, simple past and past participle caped)

1. To incite or attract (a bull) to charge a certain direction, by waving a cape.
   • 2013, Odie Hawkins, The Black Matador, "Sugar", AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 140:

     “I became a novillero when I was fourteen, but I had already been going to the fields and caping bulls since I was about twelve."

2. (nautical) To head or point; to keep a course.

   The ship capes southwest by south.

3. To skin an animal, particularly a deer.
4. (US, slang, chiefly with "for") To defend or praise, especially that which is unworthy.
   • 2016, Ken Makin, "Clinton-Trump debacle underscores gross misunderstanding of politics", Urban Pro Weekly, 6 October - 12 October 2016, page 5:

     A lot of African-Americans believe the answer is Clinton, mostly because "she's not Trump" and because President Barack Obama is shamelessly caping for her.

   • 2017, Laila Nur, quoted in Jordan Green, "Far-right groups converge behind anti-sharia message in Raleigh", Triad City Beat, 14 June - 20 June 2017, page 9:

     Many times, you see white supremacist groups caping for women to mask their agenda of white nationalism.

   • 2017, Mindy Isser [organizer], quoted by Aubrey Whelan [journalist] in "For Philly's socialists, election wins signal momentum", The Philadelphia Inquirer, 15 November 2017:

     "I can't believe I'm out here caping for a politician."

   • 2019, Julian Lutz, "Elizabeth Warren has authenticity", The Hawk (Saint Joseph's University), 3 April 2019, page 8:

     […] Biden is the old man who once caped for systematic racism; […]

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:cape.

From Middle English capen (“to stare, gape, look for, seek”), from Old English capian (“to look”), from Proto-West Germanic *kapēn. Cognate with Dutch gapen, German gaffen (“to stare at curiously, rubberneck”), Low German gapen (“to stare”). Related to keep.

cape (third-person singular simple present capes, present participle caping, simple past and past participle caped)

1. (obsolete) To look for, search after.

   Long may they search ere that they find that they after cape.

   (Geoffrey Chaucer)

2. (rare, dialectal or obsolete) To gaze or stare.

   The captain just caped mindlessly into the distance as his ship was hit by volley after volley.

   This Nicholas ever caped upward into the air.

   (Geoffrey Chaucer)

• The Middle English Dictionary

• APEC, EAPC, EPAC, EPCA, PACE, PECA, Pace, pace

• IPA^(key): [ˈt͡sapɛ]

cape

1. third-person singular present of capat

   Synonym: capá

Borrowed from English cape.

• IPA^(key): /keːp/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: cape
• Rhymes: -eːp

cape m (plural capes, diminutive capeje n)

1. A cape.

   Synonym: mantel

Borrowed from Old Occitan capa, from Late Latin cappa (compare the inherited doublet chape; cf. also the Old Northern French variant cape).

• IPA^(key): /kap/

• Audio

  (file)

• Homophones: capent, capes

cape f (plural capes)

1. cape

• de cape et d'épée
• rire sous cape

• → English: cape (see there for further descendants)
• → Romanian: capă

cape

1. inflection of caper:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

• “cape”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

cape

1. (colloquial, slang) alternative spelling of capek

• IPA^(key): /ˈka.pe/
• Rhymes: -ape
• Hyphenation: cà‧pe

cape f

1. plural of capa

• Pace, pace

cape

1. second-person singular present active imperative of capiō

• cape in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)

cape

1. Alternative form of cappe

cape

1. Alternative form of cope

• IPA^(key): /ˈkkapə/

cape f

1. plural of capa

From English cape, from French cape, from Late Latin cappa. Cognate with kappe (“cloak”), kåpe (“cloak”), kapp (“cape, headland”).

cape m (definite singular capen, indefinite plural caper, definite plural capene)

1. a cape (sleeveless garment worn by women, which covers the shoulders and arms)

• “cape” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “cape” in The Ordnett Dictionary

From English cape, from French cape, from Late Latin cappa.

cape m (definite singular capen, indefinite plural capar, definite plural capane)

1. a cape (sleeveless garment worn by women, which covers the shoulders and arms)

• “cape” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

• Hyphenation: ca‧pe
• Rhymes: -api, -apɨ

cape

1. inflection of capar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

cape

1. seed (of a fruit)

cape

1. inflection of capar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

cape c

1. cape (sleeveless garment used by women)