(In 5 Sc. chaip, schape, 8 cheap.) [a. F. chape ‘a Churchman’s Cope; a Judge’s Hood;… the chape or locket of a scabbard; the top or crown on the top of a Bell; a Mill-hoope, or Mill-case’ (Cotgr.); ‘said in the arts of certain things which are applied over others, cover them, or envelop them’ (Littré), e.g., the cap of a compass needle, etc.; f. late L. capa, cappa, hood, cap, cape. Hence, according to Diez, Sp. and Pg. chapa ‘plate, thin piece of metal with which any thing may be plated,’ which may also have influenced the Eng. use.]
† 1. A plate of metal with which anything is covered, overlaid or ornamented. Obs.
1395. E. E. Wills (1882), 4. Ypouthered with chapes and scochons … of myn Auncestres armes.
a. 1400[?]. Morte Arth., 2522. He bare sessenande in golde thre grayhondes of sable, With chapes & cheynes of chalke whytte sylver.
2. The metal plate or mounting of a scabbard or sheath; particularly that which covers the point. In some early quots. it may mean the scabbard or sheath itself.
The following explanations also occur in Dicts.; ‘The transverse guard of a sword for a protection to the hand’ (Fairholt, cited by Ogilvie). Johnson says ‘the catch of any thing by which it is held in its place; as the hook of a scabbard by which it sticks in the belt; the point by which a buckle is held to the back strap’ [citing All’s Well ‘the chape of his dagger’]. But here the chape of a dagger appears to be confused with that of a buckle.
c. 1400. Songs Costume (1849), 50. My baselard hath a sylver schape.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 69. Chape of a schethe, spirula.
1459. Inv. Sir J. Fastolf, in Paston Lett., I. 478. Item, j. bollok haftyd dager … and j. chape thertoo.
1530. Palsgr., 204/1. Chape of a shethe, bovterolle de gayne.
1570. Levins, Manip., 26. A chape, ferretum.
1590. Greene, Mourn. Garm. (1616), 11. A whittle with a siluer chape.
1601. Shaks., All’s Well, IV. iii. 164. That had the whole theoricke of warre in the knot of his scarfe, and the practise in the chape of his dagger.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 483. Their scabberds and sheaths bee set out with siluer chapes, and their sword-girdles, hangers, and bawdricks, gingle again with thin plates of siluer.
1693. Sir T. P. Blount, Nat. Hist., 295. A Sheath, without a Chape or top, shap’d almost like a Holster of a Pistol.
1766. Porny, Heraldry, Dict., Chape, the iron, brass, metal, or silver put at the end of the scabbard of cutlasses, swords, &c.
1844. Regul. & Ord. Army, 101. Bayonet-scabbards, with brass chapes.
3. The tip of a fox’s tail. [From its suggesting the tip of a scabbard.]
1677. N. Cox, Gentl. Recreat., Hunting (1697), 11. Terms of the Tail.… Of a Fox, the Brush or Drag; and the Tip at the end is called the Chape.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., Brush of a fox … the tip or end of which is called the chape.
4. The part of a buckle by which it is fastened to a strap or belt. [So in F.]
Some buckles are made with a metal chape, e.g., a stirrup-buckle; an ordinary strap-buckle is made without, and attached by a chape of leather.
1679. Plot, Staffordsh. (1686), 376. The Spurr-Buckle maker … makes the buckle, the chape, tongue, and roll.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 304/2. A Chape … holdeth the Tongue of the Buckle in its proper place.
1702. Lond. Gaz., No. 3868/4. A Gold Buckle with a Steel Chape. Ibid. (1720), No. 5993/4. Buckles without cheaps.
1769. Chron., in Ann. Reg., 160/2. Steel chape silver buckles.
1779. Wesley, Wks. (1872), IV. 163. The edge of another stair met my right buckle, and snapped the steel chape of it in two.
1796. Felton, Carriages (1801), II. 145. The Buckles … are all made to be sewed in the leather, having only a middle bridge and a tongue, but no chape.
1886. from Harness-maker’s Acct., 2 pieces leather, buckles, chapes, straps, and loops for portmanteau 2s. 6d.
b. In some places: ‘The loop on harness … or on any leather strap, close to the buckle, through which the end of the strap is passed.’ Elworthy, W. Somerset Wd.-bk.
Cf. Ogilvie: ‘The sliding-loop on a belt to which a bayonet-scabbard is attached.’
Hence Chapemaker, a maker of buckle-chapes.
1886. Birmingh. Weekly Post, 31 July, 1/1. Chape makers … a chape, or anchor is a piece of work added to the tongue (or prong) of a buckle…. Several makers in Birmingham.
