nightcap

See also: night cap, and night-cap

English

Alternative forms

• night cap, night-cap

Etymology

From night +‎ cap.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈnaɪtˌkæp/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

Noun

nightcap (plural nightcaps)

2. (clothing) 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.

3. 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.

   • 1980 August 2, Andrea F. Loewenstein, “Random Lust”, in Gay Community News, page 14:

     You know the other night, when I had dinner with Afro-Dite? When Jo was in San Francisco? Well we dropped into the Sinners, right, just for a nightcap.

   • 2024 November 8, Justin McCurry, “Coffee, sandwiches, underwear, beer: a day in the life of Japan’s beloved konbini stores”, in The Guardian‎^[1], →ISSN:

     This week I took up the relatively simple challenge of buying breakfast, lunch and dinner—and a nightcap—exclusively from konbini, as well as completing a couple of admin tasks.

4. (by extension, figuratively) Something that a person reads or listens to before bed.
   • 1920, Granville Stanley Hall, Recreations of a Psychologist‎^[2]:

     " […] and as a nightcap I happened to pick the copy of Plato […] "

5. (US, sports, baseball) The final match of a sporting contest, especially the second game of a baseball doubleheader. [From 1939.]
6. (historical) A cap drawn over the face of the condemned person before they are hanged.

Derived terms

• nightcapped
• nightcap oak

Translations

warm cap worn at night

• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 睡帽 (zh) (shuìmào)

• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: slaapmuts (nl) f
• Finnish: yömyssy (fi)
• French: bonnet de nuit (fr)
• Galician: gorro de dormir
• German: Schlafmütze (de) f
• Greek: νυχτικός σκούφος m (nychtikós skoúfos)
• Hungarian: hálósapka (hu), hálósipka
• Indonesian: please add this translation if you can
• Italian: berretto frigio, berretto da notte m, papalina (it) f
• Macedonian: капа за спиење f (kapa za spienje)
• Malay: please add this translation if you can
• Polish: szlafmyca (pl) f
• Portuguese: touca de dormir f, barrete de dormir m, gorro de dormir m
• Russian: ночно́й колпа́к m (nočnój kolpák), колпа́к (ru) m (kolpák)
• Spanish: gorro de dormir m
• Swedish: nattmössa (sv) c
• Volapük: slipabonät

beverage

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Dutch: slaapmutsje (nl) n
• Finnish: yömyssy (fi)
• German: Absacker (de) m (colloquial), Schlummertrunk (de) m
• Japanese: 寝酒 (nezake)
• Russian: please add this translation if you can
• Swedish: sängfösare (sv) c

Verb

nightcap (third-person singular simple present nightcaps, present participle nightcapping, simple past and past participle nightcapped)

1. (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.

Anagrams

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