Online dictionaryOnline dictionary
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home
English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Caper   /kˈeɪpər/   Listen
Caper

noun
1.
Any of numerous plants of the genus Capparis.
2.
Pickled flower buds used as a pungent relish in various dishes and sauces.
3.
A crime (especially a robbery).  Synonym: job.
4.
A playful leap or hop.  Synonym: capriole.
5.
Gay or light-hearted recreational activity for diversion or amusement.  Synonyms: frolic, gambol, play, romp.  "Their frolic in the surf threatened to become ugly"
6.
A ludicrous or grotesque act done for fun and amusement.  Synonyms: antic, joke, prank, put-on, trick.



Related searches:



WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words



Share |
Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar





"Caper" Quotes from Famous Books



... entangles all mens honesties, And lives like a Spider in a Cobweb lurking, And catching at all Flies, that pass his pit-falls? Puts powder to all States, to make 'em caper? Would he trust you? ...
— The Spanish Curate - A Comedy • Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher

... fully aware of this; and, without troubling to invent a transition, he ceased his jeremiads, leapt to his feet, cut a sort of agile caper before Hortense' eyes and cried, ...
— The Eight Strokes of the Clock • Maurice Leblanc

... who we are, ma'am, we're the blessed society of Saint Joseph, ma'am—our coat of arms is two heads upon one pillow, and our motty, 'Who's afraid?—Hurroo!'" shouted the savage, and he twirled his stick and cut another caper. Then coming up to Andy, he addressed him as "young woman," and said there was a fine strapping fellow whose heart was breaking till he "rowled her ...
— Handy Andy, Vol. 2 - A Tale of Irish Life • Samuel Lover

... the foundation for the following "grand" sauces: Poulette, Allemande, Uxelles, Soubise, Ste. Menehould, Perigueux, Supreme, besides all the simpler ones, which take their name from the chief ingredient, such as caper, cauliflower, celery, lobster, ...
— Choice Cookery • Catherine Owen

... again behind the chestnut-tree. In a moment he advanced without his stilts towards the table. Here, on the turf, he again commenced his antics; kicking his nose with his right foot, and his hump with his left one; executing splendid somersets, and cutting every species of caper, and never ceasing for a moment from performing all his movements to the inspiring music of his own melodious voice. At last, jumping up very high in the air, he fell as if all his joints were loosened, and the ...
— Vivian Grey • The Earl of Beaconsfield

... to life?' Then far away with good Sir Torre for guide Rode o'er the long backs of the bushless downs To Camelot, and before the city-gates Came on her brother with a happy face Making a roan horse caper and curvet For pleasure all about a field of flowers: Whom when she saw, 'Lavaine,' she cried, 'Lavaine, How fares my lord Sir Lancelot?' He amazed, 'Torre and Elaine! why here? Sir Lancelot! How know ye my lord's name is Lancelot?' ...
— Idylls of the King • Alfred, Lord Tennyson

... odor is nearly always an unpleasant odor, though, there are a few allusions in classic literature recognizing bodily smell as a sexual attraction. Ovid, in his Ars Amandi (Book III), says it is scarcely necessary to remind a lady that she must not keep a goat in her armpits: "ne trux caper iret in alas." "Mulier tum bene olet ubi nihil olet" is an ancient dictum, and in the sixteenth century Montaigne still repeated the same saying ...
— Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 4 (of 6) • Havelock Ellis

... just simply burst. Of course we're gladder to see her than she could be to see us, because she's mamma, and we're only just the children! I'm chock full of gladness!" and Cricket gave an ecstatic caper as she waved the letter that definitely set the date ...
— Cricket at the Seashore • Elizabeth Westyn Timlow

... satisfied bark, and then began to caper about the room to show his delight at the solemn silence of the place being broken; but stopped directly, and made for the door in alarm, so sudden was the spring his master made to his feet—so wild and angry the cry the boy uttered as he ...
— Diamond Dyke - The Lone Farm on the Veldt - Story of South African Adventure • George Manville Fenn

... to persuade themselves they were British grenadiers. At all events the band was playing that tune. Suddenly the music changed; they struck up a lively polka, and a number of little boys in a sort of penwiper costume, clasping one another like civilized ladies and gentlemen, began to caper about, after which they went through various antics that surpassed even the wildest notions of our highly civilized community: all this while the troops were manoeuvring as vehemently as ever, and the boys were dancing as fantastically; and the whole thing was so eminently ridiculous ...
— A Journey to Katmandu • Laurence Oliphant

... also called a cud-worm, and, rolled in a pill, put down the throat of a cow to promote the restoration of her cud, which she was supposed to have lost. Gowk, cuckoo. Fuzz-Buzz, traveller's joy. Palmer, caterpillar. Dish-washer, water-wagtail. Chink, chaffinch. Long-tailed caper, long-tailed tit. Yaffil, green woodpecker. "The yaffil laughed loud."—See Peacock at Home. Smellfox, anemone. Dead men's fingers, orchis. Granny's night-cap, water avens. Jacob's ladder, Solomon's seal. Lady's slipper, Prunella vulgaris. Poppy, foxglove. To routle, ...
— John Keble's Parishes • Charlotte M Yonge

... company to visit the settlers, and the birds salute us on our way, and the air comes cool and fragrant to our lips. We pause and survey the sugar camp, and a herd of fleet deer caper by, leading a troop of frolicking fawns, and seeming to send back the word, "see our darlings." Casting your eyes aloft to the top of that tall maple, you discover a bee tree, and behold numberless diligent little beings going and coming on the ...
— Summerfield - or, Life on a Farm • Day Kellogg Lee

... greedy for gold Over your ruins will caper. Hearken, there's worse to be told: You ...
— A line-o'-verse or two • Bert Leston Taylor

... made in the days when Virginia's men were strong, as her maids are fair; when the hardy sports of the gymnasium prepared the body to answer the 'trumpet-call to war,' and gave vigor and elevation to the mind; while our modern habits would rather fit the youth 'to caper ...
— Washington and the American Republic, Vol. 3. • Benson J. Lossing

... to tame; saying they had no right to come there pretending to be dogs when they were only big red squirrels, which indeed they greatly resembled. Still he was very fond of his little sister. He liked to pet and romp with her, to carry her on his back and caper around like the friskiest of ponies. When he paused for breath she patted his sun-burned cheek with her dimpled hand, saying, in her cooing voice, "Good brother Pippin!" which was her nickname for him. Then he ...
— Apples, Ripe and Rosy, Sir • Mary Catherine Crowley

... reckon that would be the proper caper," said Tom Collins. "Say, hombre," he added, nudging ...
— Nan Sherwood at Rose Ranch • Annie Roe Carr

... On every stick there's a witch astride,— The string you see to her leg is tied. She will do a mischief if she can, But the string is held by a careful man, And whenever the evil-minded witch Would cut some caper, he gives a twitch. As for the hag, you can't see her, But hark! you can hear her black cat's purr, And now and then, as a car goes by, You may catch a ...
— The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Complete • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

... by, saw him in the window. Devereux smiled and nodded, and the doctor stopped short at the railings, and grinned up in return, and threw out his arms to express surprise, and then snapped his fingers, and cut a little caper, as though he would say—'Now, you're come back—we'll have fun and fiddling again.' And forthwith he began to bawl his enquiries and salutations. But Devereux called him up peremptorily, for he wanted to hear the news—especially all about the Walsinghams. And up came Toole, and they ...
— The House by the Church-Yard • J. Sheridan Le Fanu

... a simpler and far more sensible fish course: brill with caper sauce—then Bayonne ham with spinach, and a savory stew of bird, ...
— Library Of The World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern, Vol 3 • Various

... lancers, their bravest and best soldiers in fight. And they are wholly indifferent as to the legions of molecules arrayed against them, and would as soon hurl a mountain of them into the sea as to sport with a zephyr or caper with the east wind. Why not summon these countless myriads of bright and invincible spearmen, to batter down the walls of this Cretan labyrinth of Life? An army of these would be worth all the molecules that Professor Maxwell could array in line, in a thousand years. ...
— Life: Its True Genesis • R. W. Wright

... down" and humble his pride, wished to show him the serious side of the situation. To this end he spoke upon another subject, beginning: "D'ye remember where we be, Nuck? 'Member this place? Seems strange that you sh'd have such a caper here with that catamount after what happened only last spring, doesn't it?" He glanced keenly at young Harding and saw that his words had at once the desired effect. Enoch stood up, the skinning-knife in his hand, and looked over the little glade. ...
— With Ethan Allen at Ticonderoga • W. Bert Foster

... singing and dancing in rocking her body to and fro. She was saluted by the name, of "Bristol Bet," and "Give us the sergeant;" but Bet had tasted too much of the inspiring liquid, to answer their calls with promptitude. She footed away vigorously, to drive away care, seconding every caper with a shout, and "Jack's the lad," and slapping her body, and heel, ...
— Sinks of London Laid Open • Unknown

... by many considered superior to caper sauce and is eaten with boiled mutton. It is made with the green seeds of nasturtians, ...
— Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches • Eliza Leslie

... from Lee or Mortehoe, Woolacombe or Croyde, over fields in which lambs stand on their front feet in exuberance of youth, or caper on their back ones until called to order by their maternal parent; or through lanes lined with primroses and violets, or roses, or nuts, or berries, according to the season, whilst on the top twig of the high hedges yellow-hammers, chaffinches, robins and the like gossip to you about ...
— Leonie of the Jungle • Joan Conquest

... under his wing, and its head on one side, with one watchful, beady eye fixed on the figures in khaki—until suddenly it would clap its long bill rapidly in a wonderful imitation of machine-gun fire—"Curse the bloody bird!" said officers startled by this evil and reminiscent noise—and caper with ridiculous postures round the imperturbable gull... Beyond the lines, from the dining-room, would come the babble of many tongues and the laughter of officers telling stories against one another over their bottles of wine, served by Gaston the head-waiter, ...
— Now It Can Be Told • Philip Gibbs

... giant did was to stretch himself; and you may imagine what a prodigious spectacle he was then. Next, lie slowly lifted one of his feet out of the forest that had grown up around it; then, the other. Then, all at once, he began to caper, and leap, and dance for joy at his freedom; flinging himself nobody knows how high into the air, and floundering down again with a shock that made the earth tremble. Then he laughed—Ho! ho! ho!—with a thunderous roar that was echoed from the mountains, far and near, ...
— Myths That Every Child Should Know - A Selection Of The Classic Myths Of All Times For Young People • Various

... hearth, shot his mother, and eaten her up, made her skin into chamois leather, and were keeping him till he got big enough for the same disposition, using his talents meanwhile to turn a penny upon; yet not a word of all this thought he; not a bit the less heartily did he caper; never speculated a minute on why it was, on the origin of evil, or any thing of the sort; or, if he did, at least never said a word about it. I gave one good look into his soft, round, glassy eyes, and could see nothing there but the most tranquil contentment. He had finished his cabbage ...
— Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands V2 • Harriet Beecher Stowe

... Joy to the German mind in mass was an unknown quantity. The literature on which they fed was heavier and more somber than their music. When the average German tried to be gay and playful he reminded one of an elephant trying to caper. Their humor in the main, manifested itself in coarse and ...
— History of the American Negro in the Great World War • W. Allison Sweeney

... him for a birthday present a little writing book. There was a place in the book for a pencil. Willie thought a great deal of this little book, and always kept it in his pocket. 2. One day, his mother was very busy, and he called his dog, and said, "Come, Caper, let us have ...
— McGuffey's Third Eclectic Reader • William Holmes McGuffey

... young Prince came along. Some went from house to house as daily governesses. Even in teaching they were greatly restricted. Man was called in to teach dancing; he went round among the schools in black silk stockings, with a kit under his arm, and could caper wonderfully. Woman could only teach dancing at the awful risk of showing her ankles. Who cares now whether a woman shows her ankles or not? It makes one think of Mr. Snodgrass and Mr. Winkle, and of the admiration which ...
— As We Are and As We May Be • Sir Walter Besant

... the proper caper," said Will. "We can take you all up in one load, and your suit cases, too. Trunks can go by express. Then we can stay a week or so with you ...
— The Outdoor Girls in a Winter Camp - Glorious Days on Skates and Ice Boats • Laura Lee Hope

... back to us after a jolly caper in the open—a few timid ones, or snobs of sorts—thrifty, perhaps, or otherwise material, or cautious. But that's about all we get as husbands in these devilish days of general feminine bouleversement. And it's a sad and instructive fact, Elorn. But there seems to ...
— The Crimson Tide • Robert W. Chambers

... warriors, Grim clusters under thorny trellises, Dry, furthest foam upon disastrous shores, Leaves that made last year beautiful, still strewn Even as they fell, unchanged, beneath the changing moon; And earth in her divine indifference Rolls on, and many paltry things and mean Prate to be heard and caper to be seen. But they are silent, calm; their eloquence Is that incomparable attitude; No human presences their witness are, But summer clouds and sunset crimson-hued, And showers and night winds and the northern star. Nay, even our salutations ...
— Poems • Alan Seeger

... she enquired, with one of her charming smiles, and cutting a caper on the floor. 'To be sure; you don't suppose they would forget. We have two ...
— Uncle Silas - A Tale of Bartram-Haugh • J.S. Le Fanu

... sumptuous collations, usually say: To-day we will dine upon the shore? Is it not that they suppose, what is certainly true, that a dinner upon the shore is of all others most delicious? Not by reason of the waves the sea-coast would be content to feed upon a pulse or a caper?—but because their table is furnished with plenty of fresh fish. Add to this, that sea-food is dearer than any other. Wherefore Cato inveighing against the luxury of the city, did not exceed the bounds of truth, when he said that ...
— Essays and Miscellanies - The Complete Works Volume 3 • Plutarch

... out her skirts as dancers do, ran back a few steps, turned, cut a caper, brought her little feet sharply together, and made some steps on the very ...
— War and Peace • Leo Tolstoy

... pilchi or jhao (Tamarix dioica), grows freely in moist sandy soils near rivers. The scrub jungle consists mostly of jand (Prosopis spicigera), a near relation of the Acacias, jal or van (Salvadora oleoides), and the coral-flowered karil or leafless caper (Capparis aphylla). All these show their desert affinities, the jand by its long root and its thorns, the jal by its small leathery leaves, and the karil by the fact that it has managed to dispense with leaves altogether. The jand ...
— The Panjab, North-West Frontier Province, and Kashmir • Sir James McCrone Douie

... of action in quiet times," answered the colonel, "or as a good war-caper[*] that lies high and dry in a muddy creek, till seams and planks ...
— Peveril of the Peak • Sir Walter Scott

... him, and that he felt himself able to get up and walk about. Your brother, Mrs. Nelson, and Horace dined with us. Your brother was more extraordinary than ever. He would get up suddenly and cut a caper, rubbing his hands every time that the thought of your fresh laurels came into his head. But I am sure that no one really rejoiced more at heart than I did. I have lived too long to have ecstasies! But with calm reflection, ...
— The Life of Horatio Lord Nelson • Robert Southey

... ho, ho!" laughed Bob, cutting a caper expressive of his great amusement. "Her Majesty's officers—some one worthy of their steel. Ha, ha, ha, ha! I say, Tom Long, how happy and contented her Majesty must feel, knowing as she does that the gallant officer, Ensign Long, is always ready to ...
— Middy and Ensign • G. Manville Fenn

... meant to say," the woman persisted, "was that you men don't probably understand. If there's to be a dance, or any such caper, she'll be lifting her skirts. Well, for the credit of St. Hospital, I'd like to overhaul the child's under-clothing, and see that she goes shipshape ...
— Brother Copas • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... could really help it." Moliere had a bad voice, a disagreeable hiccough, and harsh inflexions. "He was, nevertheless," say his contemporaries, "a comedian from head to foot; he seemed to have several voices, everything about him spoke, and, by a caper, by a smile, by a wink of the eye and a shake of the head, he conveyed more than, the greatest speaker could have done by talking in an hour." He played as usual on the 17th of February, 1673; the curtain ...
— A Popular History of France From The Earliest Times - Volume V. of VI. • Francois Pierre Guillaume Guizot

... horse began to prance and caper, neighing out these words, "I say, brother, I feel so light and in such good spirits to-day that in one single bound I could leap over ...
— Fairy Tales of the Slav Peasants and Herdsmen • Alexander Chodsko

... the message home be one of disaster? Even if the little mare won her joy might lead her to commit strange pranks; she felt that her heart would burst out of sheer joy, if she did not shout in exultation, or caper madly, as she had seen others do in the hour of victory. She was ...
— Thoroughbreds • W. A. Fraser

... Hugh? Dear, dear! it's such a pity I can't be good, and take to love-making, and marriage, and shirt-buttons, like other girls! But I can't; it's not in me. I was born a rattle-pate, and I don't see how any one can blame me for letting 'nater caper.'" ...
— The Unseen Bridgegroom - or, Wedded For a Week • May Agnes Fleming

... Go to the head of the class. What d'you know about that for luck! My first, too—and only the third magazine I sent it to! (He cuts a joyful caper.) ...
— The Straw • Eugene O'Neill

... to caper with a sort of decorous hilarity before their teacher. " Look at the sausage, professor. Did you ever see such sausage " Isn't it salubrious " And see these other things, sir. Aren't they curious " I shouldn't wonder if they were alive. Turnips, sir? No, sir. I think they ...
— Active Service • Stephen Crane

... makes even of his religious peace a very sober thing. Danger still hovers in the air about it. Flexion and contraction are not wholly checked. It were sparrowlike and childish after our deliverance to explode into twittering laughter and caper-cutting, and utterly to forget the imminent hawk on bough. Lie low, rather, lie low; for you are in the hands of a living God. In the Book of Job, for example, the impotence of man and the omnipotence of God is ...
— The Varieties of Religious Experience • William James

... hugging me. My sensations were strange. Let me try to explain them. When I was a child, I well remember a somewhat similar circumstance that befell me; whether it was a reality or a dream, I never could entirely settle. The circumstance was this. I had been cutting up some caper or other —I think it was trying to crawl up the chimney, as i had seen a little sweep do a few days previous; and my stepmother who, somehow or other, was all the time whipping me, or sending me to bed supperless, —my mother dragged me by the legs out of the chimney ...
— Moby-Dick • Melville

... pricking their sides ridiculously enough; and it makes one laugh to see that some of them are not provoked by it not to run at all, but set about plunging, in order to rid themselves of the inconvenience, instead of driving forward to divert the mob; who leap and shout and caper with delight, and lash the laggers along with great indignation indeed, and with the most comical gestures. I never saw horses in so droll a state of degradation before, for they are all striped or spotted, or painted ...
— Observations and Reflections Made in the Course of a Journey through France, Italy, and Germany, Vol. I • Hester Lynch Piozzi

... Green Corn, and he will answer, 'The Burntwood Tetons.' Now, if ye will continue to watch over my helpless children till their days of helplessness are past, ye shall continue to dance even after death—the spirit released from the flesh shall still caper as merrily as ever over the clear skies of the north. Those skies were once mine—to-morrow I shall resume dominion ...
— Traditions of the North American Indians, Vol. 1 (of 3) • James Athearn Jones

... slice of him, my dear?" asked my rakehelly friend, looking up and making his sword play round the shrinking wretch. "Just a tit-bit, my love?" he added persuasively. "A mouthful of white liver and caper sauce?" ...
— The House of the Wolf - A Romance • Stanley Weyman

... returning from market, having sold his corn and two fat pigs. He was riding his pretty mare, who, near Azay, commenced to caper about without the slightest cause, and poor Cochegrue trotted and ambled along counting his profits. At the corner of the old road of the Landes de Charlemagne, they came upon a stallion kept by the Sieur de la Carte, in a field, in order to have a good breed of horses, because ...
— Droll Stories, Complete - Collected From The Abbeys Of Touraine • Honore de Balzac

... proper caper, Kit. Why didn't you think of it before? Rustle, damn you, an', ef you're any good, mebbe so you can git to 'Frisco afore frost comes, or anywhere else you likes. Rustle! By jiminy, I've got it; I'll jes' stand up that thar Overland Express. Them fellers what rides on it's got more'n they've ...
— The Red-Blooded Heroes of the Frontier • Edgar Beecher Bronson

... one morning in the latter part of the month of March, Caper proposed to Roejean and another artist named Bagswell, to attend the fair held ...
— Continental Monthly, Vol. I, No. VI, June, 1862 - Devoted To Literature and National Policy • Various

... let off whistles of astonishment, and continued on their paths. A man dozing on a dock aroused and began to caper. ...
— Men, Women, and Boats • Stephen Crane

... wild with wrath. 'Thy unmannerly varlet tricks shall cost thee dear. Thou a soldier? A juggler with a mountebank jade—a vile hackney which thou hast taught to caper! ...
— St. George and St. Michael • George MacDonald

... landed at Caper Point near the bottom of the bay; where, on taking some bearings, a considerable local magnetic attraction was detected, for the needle of the theodolite was nearly eight degrees in error. Whilst I was thus employed Mr. Cunningham, who was my companion upon this excursion, ...
— Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia - Performed between the years 1818 and 1822 • Phillip Parker King

... governess came in, followed by Fair-Star, who began to plunge and caper at the sight of his mistress. Agnes looked keenly at Mrs. Harrington's flushed face; but, the covert smile, dawning on her lip, vanished, as she saw Ralph in the chair his mother had abandoned, bending over Lina; who sat ...
— Mabel's Mistake • Ann S. Stephens

... gaily on. I caper round—now sedately, now deliriously—knowing that, however big a fool I am making of myself, we are all in the same boat. My wife is doing it, too, to the obvious annoyance of our daughters. But this is the smartest ball of the season. ...
— The "Goldfish" • Arthur Train

... without any order whatever. Everybody carries something that they did not want to leave behind in the abandoned village. The very little children are fastened to their mother's backs, the others caper merrily round the women, and the old people walk slowly on, sometimes ...
— My Friends the Savages - Notes and Observations of a Perak settler (Malay Peninsula) • Giovanni Battista Cerruti

... word, Tom flings himself on the old gentleman's neck; throws up his hat; cuts a caper; defies the waiting-maid; and ...
— The Lamplighter • Charles Dickens

... tread of the latter—big beast as he is—is as silent as a cat's. It is true that a loud rumbling noise like distant thunder proceeded from his inside as he moved along; but the kobaoba was in too high a caper just then to have heard or noticed any sound that was not very near ...
— The Bush Boys - History and Adventures of a Cape Farmer and his Family • Captain Mayne Reid

... what you say?' said Owen, jumping up from his chair, and cutting a caper, 'then shake hands, and tell me you forgive ...
— Gladys, the Reaper • Anne Beale

... girls had formed a line round the May-pole, and the band commenced playing a very lively air. As the inspiring notes struck their ears, they began to jump and caper about, taking all sorts of fantastic steps, which it would have puzzled a French dancing master to define and classify. Most of the boys and girls knew nothing of dancing, as an art; but I venture to say they enjoyed themselves ...
— All Aboard; or, Life on the Lake - A Sequel to "The Boat Club" • Oliver Optic

... "It is a mean, miserable, good for nothin', low-lived caper! And Philander Dagget done it a purpose to keep Elburtus from the town- meetin', so his wive's brother would get the election. And, if I wus Elburtus Gansey, I'd sue him, and serve a summons on him, and ...
— Sweet Cicely - Or Josiah Allen as a Politician • Josiah Allen's Wife (Marietta Holley)

... this city of vapour To bite the salubrious breeze, Do you know why I gambol and caper And plunge with a shout in the seas Twice the lad that I was For a lark? It's because I subscribe to that bountiful paper, The Blare, ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, July 29, 1914 • Various

... still in our places, except my companion John Ovy, who sat next to me. But he being of a profession that approved Peter's advice to his Lord, "to save himself," soon took the alarm, and with the nimbleness of a stripling, cutting a caper over the form that stood before him, ran quickly out at a private door, which he had before observed, which led through the parlour into the gardens, and from thence into an orchard; where he hid himself ...
— The History of Thomas Ellwood Written by Himself • Thomas Ellwood

... valley, I reach a road-side khan, adjoining a thrifty-looking melon-garden - this latter a welcome sight, since the day is warm and sultry; and a few minutes' quiet, soulful communion with a good ripe water-melon, I think to myself, will be just about the proper caper to indulge in after being worried with dogs, people, small streams, and unridable hills since six o'clock. "Carpoose ?" I inquire, addressing the proprietor of the khan, who issues forth ...
— Around the World on a Bicycle V1 • Thomas Stevens

... their money to see themselves abused and ridiculed? Did they laugh at these indignities and enjoy them? We might wonder, if we did not know that Frenchmen never grow old, so long as they have an eye left for ogling or a leg to caper with. ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 92, June, 1865 • Various

... rising, as it were looking for his daughter, she sprang toward him, and threw her arms about him, whilst he still knelt. It would be difficult to describe the scene which followed: Dymock began to caper and exult, Mrs. Margaret to weep, Rebecca to utter imprecations, and Shanty to sing and whistle, as he was wont to do when hammering in his shed, and the vagrant to dare the old Jewess to deny any thing which she had said. When Dymock had assisted Tamar to lift ...
— Shanty the Blacksmith; A Tale of Other Times • Mrs. Sherwood [AKA: Mrs. Mary Martha Sherwood]

... by dancing on the dining-table to the accompaniment of a fiddle, which he scraped delightedly. Dancing, indeed, was another of his diversions, and, in spite of the fact that he was a fellow of Magdalen and a D.C.L. of Oxford, he was always ready to caper and to ...
— Famous Affinities of History, Vol 1-4, Complete - The Romance of Devotion • Lyndon Orr

... take his pen away, That so feebly runs on paper; Keep him quiet, or he'll play Other trait'rous prank and caper. Why apologize for treason, Or ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol. 3 No 2, February 1863 - Devoted To Literature And National Policy • Various

... admire from a choregraphic point of view. Then repressing his fear, and seeing the bird with broken wing running through the grass, he started off and swift as a greyhound ran towards it, and with many a caper, half of joy, half of stupefaction, brought ...
— Godfrey Morgan - A Californian Mystery • Jules Verne

... beloved one wanted to borrow six reals on a petticoat which she had bought. He gave her all that he had, which amounted to only four reals, and she gave him in exchange her lady's blessing, saying that with it went many kisses. As she left him, he said, she had cut a caper and had sprung fully two yards into ...
— The Story of Don Quixote • Arvid Paulson, Clayton Edwards, and Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

... milliner, With Toilinet, the draper, May waltz—for none are willinger To cut cloth or a caper.— Miss Moses of the Minories, With Mr. Wicks of Wapping, May love such light tracasseries, Such ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Vol. 13, No. 355., Saturday, February 7, 1829 • Various

... 'I thought I should find you here, and so I did not call at your office, Wentworth. Ah,' he cried, looking round, 'this is the proper caper! These offices look even better than I thought they would. I just got back this morning,' he added, turning to ...
— A Woman Intervenes • Robert Barr

... single little turret that remains On the plains, By the caper overrooted, by the gourd Overscored, 40 While the patching houseleek's head of blossom winks Through the chinks— Marks the basement whence a tower in ancient time Sprang sublime, And a burning ring, all around, the chariots traced 45 As they raced, And the monarch and his ...
— Selections from the Poems and Plays of Robert Browning • Robert Browning

... suspecting myself certainly that it is not, I determined to hazard my letter and all those criticisms which fall justly on an ignorant person writing on a subject to those much more learned in it than himself. A part of my letter, too, related to the olive tree and caper, the first of which would surely succeed in your country, and would be an infinite blessing after some fifteen or twenty years. The caper would also probably succeed, and would offer a very great and immediate profit. I thank you for your obliging ...
— The Writings of Thomas Jefferson - Library Edition - Vol. 6 (of 20) • Thomas Jefferson

... after the miraculous fashion of his years. He cut an elfish caper. He rubbed himself against his saviour ...
— The Dark House • I. A. R. Wylie

... Montague was spending the evening. Montague heard the noise of the trampling feet, opened the window and looked out upon the fantastic procession. No doubt some news of what had happened had reached him, for he is reported to have called out: "Well, boys, you have had a fine night for your Indian caper. But mind, you've got to pay the fiddler yet." One of the Mohawk leaders looked up and answered promptly: "Oh, never mind, squire. Just come out here, if you please, and we'll settle the bill in two minutes." The admiral ...
— A History of the Four Georges and of William IV, Volume III (of 4) • Justin McCarthy and Justin Huntly McCarthy

... with him, and surprise him at the last. Tommy perceived that he had made a mess of it, and he stammered out some explanation as he returned me the commission; and I replied: "The fact is, Dott, you were merely cutting a caper upon your new promotion; you never meant what you said; it was all talk. You always have been very obedient to proper authority since I have known you, and I am sure that you always will; so let's say no more about it. I wish you joy upon your promotion, and, what's more, I'm ...
— Percival Keene • Frederick Marryat

... he moved a step, he made a queer sideways pace, a caper, on the path, and instantly he ceased to be strange and foreign. He became amazingly, incredibly, familiar ...
— Mr. Britling Sees It Through • H. G. Wells

... wove beautiful garlands with mimosa, the pink flowers of the caper bush and white cockles. Then we threw them in the green water to ward off evil spirits; and we laughed like mad things when a great snorting hippopotamus raised his swollen head and we bombarded him in glee until he had to plunge back ...
— Atlantida • Pierre Benoit

... far must mean that the sun has mounted his very highest to mark the noon of Midsummer Day, and the floods of merry sparks that pour up the chimney are not brighter or merrier than the throngs of people, men and women, boys and girls, that walk and run, and caper and dance, and tumble out of the city gates and into the meadows where the singing is to be. But there is more gravity all at once when the masters come. They are mighty and important persons at any time, and above all they are so to-day, when they are ...
— The Wagner Story Book • Henry Frost

... below 'tis yet worse; Its flowers and its clay Roof a gloomier day, Hide a still deeper curse. Ring then, ye cymbals, enliven this dream! Ye horns, shout a fiercer, more vulture-like scream! And jump, caper, leap, prance, dance yourselves out of breath! For your life is all art; Love has given you no heart: Therefore shout till ye ...
— The Uncollected Writings of Thomas de Quincey, Vol. 2 - With a Preface and Annotations by James Hogg • Thomas de Quincey

... he "took four nests of this bird near Hansee on the 28th-30th March; they contained, one 5, two 4, and one 3 eggs; all but the latter (which, curiously enough, were a good deal incubated) quite fresh. The nests were placed in acacia and caper bushes, at heights of from 6 to 14 feet from the ground; they were from 6 to 7 inches in diameter exteriorly, rather loosely constructed of thorny twigs, with egg-cavities from 2 to 21/2 inches deep, lined with fine straw and leaves." ...
— The Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds, Volume 1 • Allan O. Hume

... hath fought And toyl'd in warres to give his Country peace. He has not beene a flatterer of the Time, Nor Courted great ones for their glorious Vices; He hath not sooth'd blinde dotage in the World, Nor caper'd on the Common-wealths dishonour; He has not peeld the rich nor flead the poore, Nor from the heart-strings of the Commons drawne Profit to his owne Coffers; he never brib'd The white intents of mercy; never sold Iustice for money, to ...
— Old English Plays, Vol. I - A Collection of Old English Plays • Various

... him cut caper. De oder day he hawl out de weather ear-ring, and touch him hat to a midshipman. Sure enough, make um ...
— Mr. Midshipman Easy • Captain Frederick Marryat

... scene, a council of war in Boston, Admiral Tombstone, Elbow Room, Mr. Caper, General Clinton and ...
— The Fall of British Tyranny - American Liberty Triumphant • John Leacock

... several weeks past. The pleasant prospect of the surrounding shores has been obscured a great portion of this month. The countenances of our companions partake of our dismal atmosphere. It has even sobered our Frenchmen; they do not sing and caper as usual; nor do they swing their arms about, and talk with strong emphasis of every trifle. The thoughts of home obtrude upon us; and we feel as the poor Jews felt on the banks of the Euphrates, when ...
— A Journal of a Young Man of Massachusetts, 2nd ed. • Benjamin Waterhouse

... of the earth, the mule gave an unusually violent plunge forward, and then stopped so suddenly that poor Derrick found himself sprawling on the animal's back, with both arms clasped tightly about his neck. With this the mule began to caper and shake himself so violently that the boy was forced to loose his hold and fall to the ground, amid roars of laughter from a score of miners ...
— Derrick Sterling - A Story of the Mines • Kirk Munroe

... exordium?—Why, just now, In taking up this paltry sheet of paper, My bosom underwent a glorious glow, And my internal spirit cut a caper: And though so much inferior, as I know, To those who, by the dint of glass and vapour, Discover stars and sail in the wind's eye, I wish to do as much ...
— Don Juan • Lord Byron

... show you it at the steaming out, upon deck, arrogant and heroic as it was, forming a glory round that handsome Tarasconian head. Next would I show you it at the harbour-mouth, when the bark began to caper upon the waves; I would depict it for you all of a quake in astonishment, and as though already experiencing the preliminary qualms of sea-sickness. Then, in the Gulf of the Lion, proportionably to the ...
— Tartarin of Tarascon • Alphonse Daudet

... caper family (Capparideae), represented by only a few not common plants. The type of the order is Capparis, whose pickled flower-buds ...
— Elements of Structural and Systematic Botany - For High Schools and Elementary College Courses • Douglas Houghton Campbell

... one inch thick, and season them with pepper and salt; butter a sheet of white paper, lay each slice on a separate piece, envelop them in it with their ends twisted; broil gently over a clear fire, and serve with anchovy or caper sauce. When higher seasoning is required, add a few chopped herbs and ...
— The Whitehouse Cookbook (1887) - The Whole Comprising A Comprehensive Cyclopedia Of Information For - The Home • Mrs. F.L. Gillette

... Attitudinarians and Face-makers. These accompany every word with a peculiar grimace or gesture; they assent with a shrug, and contradict with a twisting of the neck; are angry by a wry mouth, and pleased in a caper or minuet step. They may be considered as speaking harlequins; and their rules of eloquence are taken from the posture-master. These should be condemned to converse only in dumb show with their own persons in the looking-glass, as well as the ...
— Talks on Talking • Grenville Kleiser

... dead; and on these giant steps grew only rows of olive and almond trees, with sickly foliage. The heat was already overpowering; she saw the little lizards running about on the disjointed flags, among the hairy tufts of caper bushes. ...
— Doctor Pascal • Emile Zola

... on the piano stool and shook her forefinger at the Boy who suddenly came right side up at last, hand on his heart, and bowed with great dignity to the little girl on the floor. Then he, too, laughed and cut another caper just as a solemn-faced butler came in with wraps and furs. But by no means did he remain solemn long! How could he with the Boy prancing about him, and the Marchioness playing at "Catch-me-if-you-can" with her father-lover, ...
— Flamsted quarries • Mary E. Waller

... not like to step on the cat's tail. He knew by experience that a cat is apt to claw anybody well who ventures on such a caper; but the little Goody laughed out, and stepping on it herself, invited Mark ...
— The Two Story Mittens and the Little Play Mittens - Being the Fourth Book of the Series • Frances Elizabeth Barrow

... by a member of that class. It was a Saturday afternoon, and my companion and I had been wondering how we could raise enough cash to go to town for dinner and a little harmless revel. To shove those books into a suitcase and hasten to Philadelphia by trolley was the obvious caper; and Leary's famous old bookstore ransomed the volumes for enough money to provide an excellent dinner at Lauber's, where, in those days, the thirty-cent bottle of sour claret was considered the true, ...
— Plum Pudding - Of Divers Ingredients, Discreetly Blended & Seasoned • Christopher Morley

... fitted to the place he occupied as possible. Jane said, when they first began to multiply, the care troubled her some; but she began to talk to herself, and to say: "There now, don't be foolish enough to notice every little caper of them boys," and then, she said: "I began to practise what I preached to myself. It worked first-rate, for I give over watchin' 'em, and ...
— The Harvest of Years • Martha Lewis Beckwith Ewell

... he does not come, it will be because he has been delayed, that's all. He may have fallen from his horse, he may have cut a caper from the deck; he may have traveled so fast against the wind as to have brought on a violent catarrh. Eh, gentlemen, let us reckon upon accidents! Life is a chaplet of little miseries which the philosopher counts with a smile. Be philosophers, as I am, gentlemen; sit down ...
— The Three Musketeers • Alexandre Dumas, Pere

... magic horn that Duke Huon of Bordeaux received from Oberon, King of the Fairies, which caused even the Soudan of Babylon to caper about in spite of himself, and similar musical instruments in a hundred different tales, such as the old English poem of "The Friar and the Boy," the German tale (in Grimm) of "The Jew among Thorns," the "Pied Piper ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 3 • Richard F. Burton

... spell-bound as the well remembered strains fell upon his ear, then a broad grin of delight overspread his features, and finally he began to caper about the sail-loft in the most extraordinary manner, and to utter certain unearthly sounds which Lance fancied was Johnson's ...
— The Pirate Island - A Story of the South Pacific • Harry Collingwood

... alarmed, jumped back at once, and not so brave before a waking man as a sleeping one, performed a rapid caper, and ...
— Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon • Jules Verne

... are covered with perpetual snow, a luxury which is highly prized by the inhabitants of the valleys, where the summer is usually extremely hot, and in winter the snow falls only to melt when it reaches the ground. Here the more common European plants and trees give place to the wild olive, the caper bush, the aloe, the cactus, the evergreen oak, the orange, the lemon, the palm and other productions of a tropical climate. On the coasts of the Mediterranean about Marbella and Malaga, the sugar-cane is successfully cultivated. Silk is produced in the same region. ...
— Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia

... "Don't caper about like a lot of lunatics," shouted the little man, angrily. "Come and sit down and talk business. The Ki-Wi has ...
— Dick, Marjorie and Fidge - A Search for the Wonderful Dodo • G. E. Farrow

... utter what he meant to be soothing words, as he approached the gentle bovine. He had heard farmers talking to their cows when starting to do the milking act, and thought it the proper caper. But Bossy must have finally made up her mind that this trespasser had a suspicious look, and meant to carry off the little calf that could now be heard calling away off beyond a rise where a farm house and stable ...
— Boy Scouts on a Long Hike - Or, To the Rescue in the Black Water Swamps • Archibald Lee Fletcher

... multitudinous cries of "Ofa, al-ofa, papalang" ringing in our ears ("Good-bye; good-bye, white man"), we rounded the point, and, with increasing pace, bore away through the outlying islands for the open sea. There was a strong trade blowing, making the old barky caper like a dancing-master, which long unfamiliar motion almost disagreed with some of us, after our long quiet. Under its hastening influence we made such good time that before dinner Vau Vau had faded into nothingness, mingling like the clouds with the soft haze ...
— The Cruise of the Cachalot - Round the World After Sperm Whales • Frank T. Bullen

... they rather fiercely repudiated the claim, and this obscure county family took proceedings against the great Seaman for using their crest—a red dragon. Gloriana, however, retaliated by giving her bold Sir Francis an entirely new device showing the dragon cutting a most undignified caper on the bows of his ship. The effigies of three of these Drakes, with their wives in humble attitudes beside them, are to be seen in Musbury church, another mile ...
— Wanderings in Wessex - An Exploration of the Southern Realm from Itchen to Otter • Edric Holmes

... signifies, "Welcome to our house," and turns its flowers towards the sun. The Irish Spurge (Hiberna), is so powerful that a small bundle of its bruised plant will kill the fish for several miles down a river. Yet another Spurge (Lathyris), a twin brother, bears caper-like seeds which are sometimes dishonestly pickled and sold as a (dangerous) substitute for the toothsome flowerbuds taken in sauce with our boiled mutton. The whole tribe of Spurges contains two hundred genera, and forms, what we call now-a-days, "a large order." The ...
— Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure • William Thomas Fernie

... to tumble and holding on. It made me wake up, and there I lay thinking of you, spending your nights up here all alone, and no one to look after you. I wondered what you could be doing and what might be happening to you. I said to myself at once, 'Either this is a coincidence or the caper sauce.' But I made sure it was you. I felt I MUST do something anyhow, and up I came just as soon as ...
— Ann Veronica • H. G. Wells

... bore to me, my dear," she said, "to move my old bones; and there's nowhere, I suppose, in your house where I could pass the night; besides, I never can sleep in a strange bed. Let these young folks caper ...
— Liza - "A nest of nobles" • Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev

... as vigorously and quickly as before; some of their arrows fell among the horsemen, who were sumptuously equipped, and, killing and wounding many, made them caper and fall among the Genoese, so that they were in such confusion they could never rally again. In the English army there were some Cornish and Welshmen on foot who had armed themselves with large knives. These, advancing through the ranks of the men-at-arms and archers, ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 07 • Various

... to his lips and blew. In a moment or two harlequin and columbine appeared on the screen, and began to caper nimbly, naturally, with the airiest graces. The tune was a jigging reel, and soon began to inspire the performer above. Her small dancers in a twinkling turned into a gambolling elephant, then to a pair of swallows. A moment after they were flower and ...
— The Delectable Duchy • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... used to spring from my place, jump, caper, run before the door, and never cease fawning on him, till he went out; and then I always either followed him, or ran before him, continually looking at ...
— The Arabian Nights Entertainments Complete • Anonymous

... while Cap was arranging flowers on the parlor mantelpiece, Old Hurricane burst in upon her with his hands full of letters and newspapers, and his heart full of exultation—throwing up his hat and cutting an alarming caper for a man of his age, ...
— Capitola the Madcap • Emma D. E. N. Southworth

... bum eyesight, and a wife that ain't ever seen a well day; so they take every cent of their life savings of eighty-three dollars and settle on an abandoned farm in Connecticut and clear nine thousand dollars the first year raising the Little Giant caper for boiled mutton. There certainly ought to be a law against such romantic trifling. In the first place, think of a Connecticut farmer abandoning anything worth money! Old Timmins comes from Connecticut. ...
— Somewhere in Red Gap • Harry Leon Wilson

... with Caper Sauce.—Put a leg of mutton, weighing about six pounds, on the fire in enough boiling hot water to cover it; boil it for five minutes, skimming it as often as any scum rises, then pour in enough cold water to reduce the heat to about 160 deg. Fahr., season with a tablespoonful of salt, and simmer ...
— The Cooking Manual of Practical Directions for Economical Every-Day Cookery • Juliet Corson

... boils put in the meat, whether beef or mutton, and take off the scum as it rises. If the scum be suffered to sink, it will stick to the meat, and spoil its colour. Turnips, greens, potatoes, or carrots with the beef, and caper sauce with ...
— The Cook and Housekeeper's Complete and Universal Dictionary; Including a System of Modern Cookery, in all Its Various Branches, • Mary Eaton

... master-player, savagely clapping his hand upon his poniard,—"why, I am going to do with thee just whatever I please. Dost hear? And, hark 'e, this sort of caper doth not please me at all; and by the whistle of the Lord High Admiral, if thou triest it on again, thy life is ...
— Master Skylark • John Bennett

... said. "Just shove a whole one on. They 're not a bit partic'lar. Swallow the bait, hook and all, and go—that 's their caper. The fellow that does n't catch the first ...
— The Cruise of the Dazzler • Jack London

... — N. leap, jump, hop, spring, bound, vault, saltation^. ance, caper; curvet, caracole; gambade^, gambado^; capriole, demivolt^; buck, buck jump; hop skip and jump; falcade^. kangaroo, jerboa; chamois, goat, frog, grasshopper, flea; buckjumper^; wallaby. V. leap; jump up, jump over the moon; hop, spring, bound, ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget

... trampling of hoofs, as might have startled Don Quixote himself; while an old toper, of inveterate ill habits, uplifted his black bottle and took off a hearty swig. Meantime the Merry-Andrew began to caper and turn somersets, shaking his sides, nodding his head, and winking his eyes in as life-like a manner as if he were ridiculing the nonsense of all human affairs, and making fun of the whole multitude beneath ...
— The Seven Vagabonds (From "Twice Told Tales") • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... cried Aunt 'Mira. "I wish I was with 'em myself. I read in the Fireside Fav'rite that 'tain't considered a proper caper, anyway, for a young gal to go anywhere ...
— The Mission of Janice Day • Helen Beecher Long

... flights are far beyond her power; To sing how Nannie lap and flang, (A souple jade she was and strang), And how Tam stood, like ane bewithc'd, And thought his very een enrich'd: Even Satan glowr'd, and fidg'd fu' fain, And hotch'd and blew wi' might and main: Till first ae caper, syne anither, Tam tint his reason a thegither, And roars out, "Weel done, Cutty-sark!" And in an instant all was dark: And scarcely had he Maggie rallied. When out the ...
— Poems And Songs Of Robert Burns • Robert Burns

... range from the library door, he executed a triumphant but noiseless caper, and doubled with mirth, clapping his hand over his mouth to stifle the effervescings of his joy. He had recognized the ledger in the same wrapping in which he had left it in Mrs. Lindley's vestibule. His moment had come: the climax of his enormous joke, the repayment ...
— The Flirt • Booth Tarkington

... student's rude humour ran like a gust through the cloister of Stephen's mind, shaking into gay life limp priestly vestments that hung upon the walls, setting them to sway and caper in a sabbath of misrule. The forms of the community emerged from the gust-blown vestments, the dean of studies, the portly florid bursar with his cap of grey hair, the president, the little priest with feathery hair who wrote devout verses, the squat peasant form of the professor ...
— A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man • James Joyce

... prisoner wants his bonds cut. Re-enter the brave Louis—he is angry with Kishwegin—enter the brave Ciccio hauling a bear, apparently dead. Kishwegin examines the bear, Ciccio examines the prisoner. Ciccio tortures the prisoner, makes him stand, makes him caper unwillingly. Kishwegin swings the cradle. The prisoner is tripped up—falls, and cannot rise. He lies near the fallen bear. Kishwegin carries food to Ciccio. The two braves converse in dumb show, Kishwegin swings ...
— The Lost Girl • D. H. Lawrence

... different translations of | the Old Testament, one find some or | all of the following (Hebrew terms are | given in parenthesis): garlic (shuwm), | onion (b@tsel), nigella (qetsach, also | rendered as caraway oder dill, quite | obscure), cumin (kammon, also | caraway), coriander (gad), caper | (abiyownah, also translated "desire"), | cinnamon (qinnamown), cassia (qiddah, | also interpreted as a synonym of | cinnamon or cassia buds), hyssop | (ezowb, frequent but very obscure), | myrtle (hadac), olive (shemen and | zayith, very frequent), juniper | (b@rowsh, also given ...
— Valerius Terminus: of the Interpretation of Nature • Sir Francis Bacon

... a caper to signify his disdain for the weak expression. "Witty is n't the word for it. And then, with all her years, she 's so young, is n't she? She breathes the fresh, refreshing ...
— The Lady Paramount • Henry Harland

... christenings and such like festivals, playing upon a fiddle of his own construction. So famous was Hans Bach that his name lives in legend and folklore, wherein it is related that often betimes when he arrived at a village, the word would be passed and the whole population would quit work and caper on the green. So luring was his fiddle, and so potent his voice in song and story, that in a few instances preachers with long faces warned their flocks against him; and once we find a country Dogberry had his minions lay the innocent ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great - Volume 14 - Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Musicians • Elbert Hubbard

... fortunate companion, added to the braying of donkeys, barking of dogs, and groaning of the camels, gave me the notion of a menagerie in a state of insurrection. The affair looked serious when the animal began to caper amongst Sturt's instruments, but luckily we secured him before any damage was done, though for some time theodolites, sextants, artificial horizons, telescopes, and compasses were in imminent danger. The worst of an occurrence of this kind is, ...
— A Peep into Toorkisthhan • Rollo Burslem

... to carry her downstairs every morning, and upstairs every night. She would clasp me round the neck and laugh, the while, as if I did it for a wager. Jip would bark and caper round us, and go on before, and look back on the landing, breathing short, to see that we were coming. My aunt, the best and most cheerful of nurses, would trudge after us, a moving mass of shawls and pillows. Mr. Dick would not have relinquished his post of ...
— David Copperfield • Charles Dickens

... Don Pedro of Portugal ever roamed them, until I have disenchanted her.' 'All that and more, you owe my lady,' the damsel's answer to me, and taking the four reals, instead of making me a curtsey she cut a caper, springing two full yards into ...
— Don Quixote • Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

... away from it—and especially if underground—he became more like a pliable elephant. All his bones dropped out through his feet, as he described it to Daisy. So now he submitted miserably as Fay surveyed him up and down, switched off his blinking headlamp ("That coalminer caper is corny, Gussy.") and then—surprisingly—rapidly stuffed his belt-bag under the right shoulder of Gusterson's coat and buttoned the latter ...
— The Creature from Cleveland Depths • Fritz Reuter Leiber

... said that the Marseilles fig degenerates when transported into any other part of the country. The leaves of the mulberry tree will sell for about three livres, the purchaser gathering them. The caper is a creeping plant. It is killed to the roots every winter. In the spring it puts out branches, which creep to the distance of three feet from the centre. The fruit forms on the stem, as that extends itself, ...
— Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson - Volume I • Thomas Jefferson

... to a lively man like Caper, in spending a day in the open country around Rome. Whether it was passed, gun in hand, near the Solfatara, trying to shoot snipe and woodcock, or, with paint-box and stool, seated under a large white cotton umbrella, sketching in the valley of Poussin or out ...
— Continental Monthly, Vol. I, No. V, May, 1862 - Devoted To Literature And National Policy • Various

... oh, where Is Vanity Fair? I want to be seen with the somebodies there. I've money and beauty and college-bred brains; Though my 'scutcheon's not spotless, who'll mind a few stains? To caper I wish in the chorus of style, And wed an aristocrat after a while So please tell me truly, and please tell me fair, Just how many miles ...
— When hearts are trumps • Thomas Winthrop Hall

... the supper, and wash the dishes, and not be able to say she did it and I didn't, when I did," Annie thought with unholy joy. She knew perfectly well that her viewpoint was not sanctified, but she felt that she must allow her soul to have its little witch-caper or she could not answer for the consequences. There might result spiritual atrophy, which would be much more disastrous than sin and repentance. It was either the continuance of her old life in her father's house, which was the ignominious and harmful one of the scapegoat, ...
— The Copy-Cat and Other Stories • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

... a caper, a look of lively joy shot from the man's eyes, where a tear was gathering, and the wagon, from its bursting cover, gave utterance ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. XII, No. 29. August, 1873. • Various

... Sic flights are far beyond her pow'r; To sing how Nannie lap and flang, (A souple jade she was and strung,) And how Tam stood, like ane bewitch'd; And thought his very een enrich'd; Even Satan glowr'd, and fidg'd fu' fain, And hotch'd and blew wi' might and main: 'Till first ae caper, syne anither, Tam tint his reason a' thegither, And roars out, "Weel done, Cutty-sark!" And in an instant all was dark: And scarcely had he Maggie rallied, When out ...
— The Complete Works of Robert Burns: Containing his Poems, Songs, and Correspondence. • Robert Burns and Allan Cunningham

... the tenants of the gun-room had assembled to their repast. "Now all my misery is about to commence," cried Courtenay, as he took his seat at the gun-room table, on which the dinner was smoking in all the variety of pea-soup, Irish stew, and boiled mutton with caper sauce. ...
— The King's Own • Captain Frederick Marryat

... evidently not well taught in astrology. 'Shall we set about some revels?' says the latter. 'What shall we do else?' says Toby; 'were we not born under Taurus?' 'Taurus, that's sides and heart,' says sapient Andrew. 'No, sir,' responds Toby, 'it's legs and thighs. Let me see thee caper.' ...
— Myths and Marvels of Astronomy • Richard A. Proctor

... and walked toward the house. She was restless and felt at a loss to know what to do with herself. Since her caper in the garden Steve had left her absolutely to her own way, and she had found, as folks will soon or late, that nothing could be more dreary. She finally started over to see her cousins, the Misfits, but on her ...
— The Gentle Art of Cooking Wives • Elizabeth Strong Worthington

... on his ass, Had found a spot of thrifty grass, And there turn'd loose his weary beast. Old Grizzle, pleased with such a feast, Flung up his heels, and caper'd round, Then roll'd and rubb'd upon the ground, And frisk'd and browsed and bray'd, And many a clean spot made. Arm'd men came on them as he fed: "Let's fly," in haste the old man said. "And wherefore so?" the ass replied; ...
— A Hundred Fables of La Fontaine • Jean de La Fontaine

... glancing at the button in question, "why, that's just a little——" There was a faint wail from the depths of the ulster. Jimmy began to caper about with elephantine tread. "Oochie, coochie, ...
— Baby Mine • Margaret Mayo

... the maddening gayety of the season. It would welcome his arrival in triumphant strains; it would pursue him at dinner, and drown his conversation; it will fill his siesta with martial dreams, and it would seize his legs in the evening, and entreat him to caper in the parlor. Everything was ready. And this was what happened. It was the evening of the opening day. The train wagons might be expected any moment. The electric lights were blazing. All the clerks stood expectant, the porters were by the door, the trim, ...
— Baddeck and That Sort of Thing • Charles Dudley Warner

... do it in this world, Dawson. I'd have a crick in my back in two minutes. Besides, we're not out here for lessons, Miss Stewart and I, but just as spectators. We'll look on and see the other girls learn the proper caper," laughed Polly. ...
— Peggy Stewart at School • Gabrielle E. Jackson

... Nelson, and Horace, dined with us. Your brother was more extraordinary than ever. He would get up suddenly, and cut a caper; rubbing his hands every time that the thought of your fresh laurels ...
— The Letters of Lord Nelson to Lady Hamilton, Vol II. - With A Supplement Of Interesting Letters By Distinguished Characters • Horatio Nelson

... the police might balk him of his prey seemed to move Cashel. He took a step forward. The excitement of the crowd rose to a climax; and a little man near Lydia cut a frenzied caper and screamed, "Go ...
— Cashel Byron's Profession • George Bernard Shaw

... perhaps very rich, meets with a privateer (not so strong but that she might fight him and perhaps get off); the captain calls up his crew, tells them, "Gentlemen, you see how it is; I don't question but we may clear ourselves of this caper, if you will stand by me." One of the crew, as willing to fight as the rest, and as far from a coward as the captain, but endowed with a little more wit than his fellows, replies, "Noble captain, we are all willing to fight, and don't question but to beat him off; but here is the case: ...
— An Essay Upon Projects • Daniel Defoe

... probably be permitted to "take off his things." The Post "ad." is worse than that of holy John Wanamaker, who once announced in the Philadelphia papers that "Parisian thoughts are sewn in our underwear." With such lingerie I should imagine that "call again" garters would be the proper caper. Such a combination would suggest the patent medicine certificate of the happy husband who joyfully testified that "My wife was so nervous that I could not sleep with her, but after taking two bottles of your remarkable, etc., she has so far recovered that anybody can sleep with her." Just ...
— Volume 1 of Brann The Iconoclast • William Cowper Brann

... noted for his vigour and address in the jousts or tilting matches after the Moresco fashion. Ojeda himself could not surpass him in feats of horsemanship, and particular mention is made of a favourite mare, which he could make caper and carricol in strict cadence to the sound of a viol; beside all this, he was versed in the legendary ballads or romances of his country, and was renowned as a capital performer on the guitar! Such were the qualifications of this candidate for a command ...
— The American Quarterly Review, No. 17, March 1831 • Various

... a cigarette, smoked it with deliberation foreign to his usual self but characteristic of him when he was closely and intensely engaged; for he was like a thoroughbred that is all fret and champ and pawing and caper until the race is on, when he at once settles down into a calm, steady stride, with all the surplus nervous energy applied directly and intelligently to the work in hand. She was not looking at him, but she was feeling him in every atom of her body, was feeling the power, the inevitableness of ...
— The Fashionable Adventures of Joshua Craig • David Graham Phillips

... was a narrow ledge which ran around the house under the second story windows. It took the reckless girl but a moment to get out upon this ledge. To tell the truth she had tried this caper before—but never at such ...
— The Corner House Girls at School • Grace Brooks Hill

... he reared an' pitched an' caper'd, only ez a mule kin pitch, Tel he flung Sam clean f'om off him, landed ...
— Fifty years & Other Poems • James Weldon Johnson

... the letter to Gurth, who shook his head gruffly, and passed it to Wamba. The Jester looked at each of the four corners of the paper with such a grin of affected intelligence as a monkey is apt to assume upon similar occasions, then cut a caper, and gave the ...
— Ivanhoe - A Romance • Walter Scott

... of its Coming About was this. I arrived in Paris very Poor and Miserable, and was for some days (when that which I brought with me was spent) almost destitute of Bread. At last, hearing that some Odd Hands were wanted at the Opera-House to caper about in a new Ballet upon the Story of Orpheus, the Master of the Tavern where I Lodged, who had been a Property-Master at the Theatres, and entertained many of the Playing Gentry, made interest for me, as much to keep me from Starving ...
— The Strange Adventures of Captain Dangerous, Vol. 3 of 3 • George Augustus Sala

... trumpeter at the castle, and had allowance for blawing at break of day, and at dinner time, and other whiles when there was company about, and it pleased my lord; and when he raised his militia to caper awa' to Bothwell Brig against the wrang-headed westland Whigs, I behoved, reason or name, to munt a horse ...
— Bride of Lammermoor • Sir Walter Scott

... flattered and delighted, and all the boy in me wanted to caper around the room and then to fall on Alresca's neck and dissolve in gratitude to him. But instead of these feats, I put on a vast seriousness (which must really have been very funny to behold), and then I thanked Alresca in formal phrases, and ...
— The Ghost - A Modern Fantasy • Arnold Bennett

... let yer bossest eye Camp on my mortal part awhile; then you Jes' toot my sufferin's an' tell me what's The fashionable caper now in writhes— The very ...
— Black Beetles in Amber • Ambrose Bierce



Words linked to "Caper" :   bound, job, Capparis flexuosa, indulgence, practical joke, genus Capparis, Capparis, leaping, flirtation, native pomegranate, saltation, flirt, bush, robbery, leap, recreation, foolery, shrub, flirting, craziness, prank, Capparis mitchellii, diversion, game, Capparis cynophallophora, word play, pickle, teasing, bounce, lunacy, horseplay, toying, tomfoolery, coquetry, Capparis spinosa, folly, dalliance, dirty trick, Capparis arborea, native orange, jump, Syrian bean caper, spring



Copyright © 2024 Dictionary One.com