[f. CAP v.1 + -ING1.]
1. The action of the vb. CAP in various senses.
1592. Greene, Groatsw. Wit (1617), 3. Schollers … receiued (after long capping and reuerence) a sixepenny reward.
1602. Return fr. Parnass., I. iv. (Arb.), 17. Letts leaue this capping of rimes.
1717. De Foe, Hist. Ch. Scot., II. 45. The Bishop … would have proved that Capping, or pulling off the Hat, and kneeling, were synonimous.
1863. Geo. Eliot, Romola, I. xvi. (1880), I. 225. To be swamped in the capping of impromptu verses.
1883. Athenæum, 3 Nov., 564/1. A capping of the Cervantic with the Rabelaisian spirit.
1885. M. Pattison, Mem., 57. In the thought of how I ought to perform my first act of ‘capping’ I omitted the ceremony altogether.
b. spec. The putting of a gun-cap upon a gun, etc. Also attrib.
1847. Infantry Man. (1854), 34. Bring the firelock down to the capping position.
1866. Cornh. Mag., Sept., 345. A capping system … entails a loss of not less than fifty per cent. in rapidity.
1881. Greener, Gun, 105. The best capping breech-loader that has ever been produced.
c. The ceremony of conferring a University degree in Scotland.
2. Cap-making; the capper’s trade.
1662. Fuller, Worthies, Wales, 49. Capping anciently set fifteen distinct Callings on work.
3. That with which anything is capped, covered at the top, or overlaid.
1713. Lond. & Country Brewer, III. (1743), 207. Under its Capping of fresh Malt.
1792. Phil. Trans., LXXII. 374. The upper plate of lead which served as a capping to the junction of the hip with the ridge of the roof.
1832. De la Beche, Geol. Man., 409. It is here without that great capping of the oolitic group.
1850. Leitch, trans. C. O. Müller’s Anc. Art, 316. A truncated pillar … with base and capping.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 25. The capping of sand would consequently appear of insignificant thickness.
4. attrib. and Comb., as capping-sheaf, -stone; capping-leather, leather from which the upper leather of a shoe is made; capping-plane (Joinery), a plane for working the upper surface of the balustrade on a staircase; capping-woollen, woollen stuff for cap-making.
1641. Best, Farm. Bks. (1856), 142. *Cappinge leather is soe deare.
1877. E. Peacock, N. W. Linc. Gloss. (E. D. S.), *Capping-sheaves, the hood-sheaves of a ‘stook’ of corn. *Capping-stones, the coping stones of a wall or other building.
1555. Fardle Facions, II. ix. 198. Rounde about these sparres thei straine *cappyng wollen.
