nightcap
English
Etymology
Pronunciation
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "GA" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /ˈnaɪtˌkæp/
Audio (RP): (file)
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. [From 14th c.]
- Winston wore a nightcap to stave off the cold.
- A beverage drunk before bed that is usually alcoholic. [From 1818.]
- I'll make myself a nightcap of whisky and lemon before heading to bed.
- (by extension, figuratively) Something that a person reads or listens to before bed.
- 1920, Granville Stanley Hall, Recreations of a Psychologist
- " […] and as a nightcap I happened to pick the copy of Plato […] "
- 1920, Granville Stanley Hall, Recreations of a Psychologist
- (US, sports, baseball) The final match of a sporting contest, especially the second game of a baseball doubleheader. [From 1939.]
- (historical) A cap drawn over the face of the condemned person before they are hanged.
Translations
warm cap worn at night
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beverage
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Verb
nightcap (third-person singular simple present nightcaps, present participle nightcapping, simple past and past participle nightcapped)
- (intransitive) To drink an alcoholic beverage shortly before retiring to bed.
- 2010, Mark Decarlo, Fork on the Road: 400 Cities/One Stomach (page 229)
- 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, […]
- 2020, Mitchell Jackson, Survival Math: Notes on an All-American Family (page 143)
- We nightcapped at the Four Seasons Hotel George V, on the most extravagant cocktails I'd ever purchased in life.
- 2010, Mark Decarlo, Fork on the Road: 400 Cities/One Stomach (page 229)