[app. abbreviated from CAPRIOLE v.: Florio has It. ‘capriolare to caper or capriole.’ Cf. the sb.] intr. To dance or leap in a frolicsome manner, to skip for merriment; to prance as a horse. Also with about, away.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., V. ii. 113. The third he caper’d, and cried All goes well.
1635. Swan, Spec. M., VI. ii. (1643), 221. As if it danced or capered up and down.
a. 1691. Boyle, Wks., II. 182 (R.). Dancing and capering like a kid.
1768. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1852), II. 445. The complete horseman … may let him sometimes prance and caper and curvet.
1802. Mar. Edgeworth, Moral T., I. viii. 50. A number of people capering about.
1847. Barham, Ingol. Leg. (1877), 168. Capering away in a Spanish bolero.
1859. Tennyson, Elaine, 788. Making a roan horse caper and curvet For pleasure.
b. transf. and fig. of a singer or singing bird.
a. 1591. H. Smith, Serm., I. 410. A nightingale … quavers and capers and trebles.
1609. Douland, Ornith. Microl., 88. The Italians … caper with their voyces.
1850. Blackie, Æschylus, I. Pref. 6. The old Hellenic dialect can caper gracefully through movements, that … would twist our English tongue into … dislocation.
