[Origin unknown; app. originally a sailor’s expression: not in Bailey, Johnson, Ash, nor in Todd, 1818. The first element may possibly be CAP sb.1
(Prof. Skeat suggests corruption of Sp. cabezar ‘to nod, pitch as a ship,’ or of capuzar in ‘capuzar un baxel, to sink a ship by the head,’ from cabeza, cabo head.)]
1. trans. To upset, overturn (esp. on the water).
1788. Dibdin, Mus. Tour, xxxv. 142. I began to think, with the sailors below, that there was certainly a chance of ‘our being capsized.’
1803. Rees, Cycl., Capsize, in Naval Language to upset or turn over anything.
1823. Byron, Juan, IX. xviii. What if carrying sail capsize the boat?
1847–78. Halliwell, Capsize, to move a hogshead or other vessel forward by turning it alternately on the heads. Somerset.
1870. E. Peacock, Ralf Skirl., II. 286. He … capsized the stool on which he had been seated.
fig. 1833. Marryat, P. Simple, xvii. I was capsized … when I looked at the house.
2. intr. (for refl.) To be upset or overturned.
1805. A. Duncan, Mariner’s Chron., IV. 75. The captain … expressed his surprise that the ship should remain so long on her beam-ends, in such a heavy sea, without capsizing.
1882. Nares, Seamanship (ed. 6), 140. The sail … will capsize behind the top-gallant sail.
Hence Capsized ppl. a., Capsizing vbl. sb., etc.
1882. Daily News, 1 June, 3/6. She fell in with a capsized vessel, apparently a schooner.
