Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1941 (SND Vol. II). Includes material from the 1976 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1705-1717, 1786-1870, 1923
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CAIP, Kaip, Cape, Cap, n.1 and v.1 Also kip in comb. kip-stane. Sc. forms of Eng. cope (Abd. 1909 J. Tennant Jeannie Jaffray 48, caip). The form kip may be due to confusion with Kip, n.1 Also found in Eng. dial., Cum., Yks., Lin., Som. (E.D.D.). [kep, kɑp]
I. n.
1. “The highest part of anything” (Sc. 1808 Jam.); a coping (Abd.19 1938).Sc. 1799 Prize Essays and Trans. Highl. Soc. Scot. I. 189–190:
A stone dike . . . four feet in height, with a cape of stone, will defend your plantation from cows and horses; but a foot more, with a cape of turf . . . will be necessary to defend it from sheep.Rnf. a.1813 A. Wilson Poems and Lit. Prose (ed. Grosart 1876) II. 60:
High stood the gibbet's dismal cape.Rxb. 1848 R. Davidson Leaves 57:
The fabric rais'd 'mang bluid an' toil, - The cape was laid at Bannockburn.
2. “The seat board on the front of a cart” (Ayr. 1938 (per Kcb.9)).
3. Combs.: (1) cap-neb, “an iron toe-plate” (n.Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.; Slk. (Ettr. For.) 1825 Jam.2), put on to protect the toe of the shoe; (2) cap-sheaf, the straw forming the top of a thatched rick; (3) caip-stane, -steen, cap(e)-stane, capestone, caipin' stane, a coping stone (Bnff.2, -steen, Abd.9, Fif.10 1938; Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B., caipin' stane, caip-stane). Also in reduced form cappy. Both (2) and (3) are also used fig.(2) Ayr. 1846 Ballads and Songs (ed. Paterson 1847) Series I. 105:
The neighbourhood turned out in a body . . . to share in the triumph of putting the cap-sheaf, as it were, on Peter's castle.(3) m.Sc. 1870 J. Nicholson Idylls o' Hame 73:
The capstane, the tapstane, O' life's slow risin' cairn.Fif. 1860 H. Farnie Fife Coast 75:
It was . . . naething but his ain prudence, under God's grace, an' becoming humility, in the day o' prosperity, that led him, stap by stap, to the kip-stane o' independence.Gsw. 1717 Burgh Records Gsw. (ed. Marwick 1908) 609:
There is a part of the Green dyck falling and wanting capestone.Ayr. 1786 Burns Poor Mailie's Elegy i.:
The last, sad cape-stane of his woes; Poor Mailie's dead!Kcb. 1814 W. Nicholson Tales 92:
Alike in every science happy, To pluck a tooth, or set a cappy.
4. See Capes, n.pl.
II. v. To put on the cover of a roof (Sc. 1825 Jam.2, caip), or wall.Sc. 1705 Foulis Acct. Bk. (S.H.S.) 392:
To Robert Boyd in compleat payment of all his counts for biging, highting, kaiping and casting dyks.Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.:
Ti caip a dyke.
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"Caip n.1, v.1". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 10 Dec 2025 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/caip_n1_v1>
