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: 1842-1885
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CAP, v.4 Cf. Kep, v.1
1. “To seize by violence, to lay hold of what is not one's own; a word much used by children at play” (Sc. 1808 Jam.); “to take possession of anything used in play out of season” (Edb. 1910 Scotsman (3 Sept.)).Edb. 1845 F. W. Bedford Hist. G. Heriot's Hospital (1859) 346:
It was too bad of him to cap my top and throw it up to the barty because I was playing with it a week after the time for them had passed.
2. “To stop the progress of something that is in motion; to arrest; to prevent” (Uls. 1924 (2nd ed.) W. Lutton Montiaghisms); to back water with an oar, to hold a boat back in rapid water.s.Sc. 1885 W. Scrope Salmon Fishing 260, 266:
Cap, Charlie, cap, man; we are drifting doun like mad; keep back your end of the boat. . . . We mun cap weel here, for she will gang ower the stream wi' a terrible flee.
Hence cap-ball, “a boys' game” (Uls. 1880 W. H. Patterson Gl. Ant. and Dwn.), the same as Catchers, q.v.
3. To catch or rake and remove what is being fed out by a machine, poss. an anglicised form of Kep, v., 2. m.Lth. 1842 Children in Trades Report ii. k 5:
I cap to the cutter. My employment is to collect the sheets from the [paper-] cutting machine.
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"Cap v.4". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 5 Dec 2025 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/cap_v4>
