To surpass everything.
1804. Your correspondent caps the climax of Misrepresentation.—Lancaster (Pa.) Intelligencer, Feb. 21.
1811. It caps the climax of French arrogance and turpitude.—Mass. Spy, Sept. 18.
1819. To cap the climax of his villany, True forced Mr. Buswell to swallow a large quantity of pearl-ash and red-pepper.—Id., April 28.
1821. To cap the climax of his infamy and barbarity, he severed the head from the body of the infant.—Pennsylvania Intelligencer (Harrisburg), March 21: from the Missourian.
1823. To cap the climax of this discipline of humanity, &c.—Howard Gazette (Boston), p. 2.
1824. In the Land of Mud, otherwise called Catskill, it appears one of the true born sons of invention and artifice has capped the climax of deceitful manœuvering, and eclipsed all the heroes of wooden nutmegs, horn gun-flint, and bass-wood button memory.—The Microscope, March 27, p. 4/1: from the N.Y. Examiner.
1826. Having gradually advanced towards the cap of his climax, “In short (said the Methodist preacher], “to say all in one word, heaven is a Kentuck of a place.”—Mass. Spy, June 7.
1829. The family, too, was precisely the cap of the climax of the ancient German grandees in the country.—T. Flint, ‘George Mason,’ p. 163 (Boston).
1830. Second mate, for this office was still the cap of his climax of promotion.—T. Flint, ‘The Shoshonee Valley,’ i. 39 (Cincinn.).
1836. W. Irving (N.E.D.).
1841. Our Government cowered before [the British Minister], and this last act of submission has capped the climax.—Mr. Buchanan of Pa., U.S. Senate, June 15: Congressional Globe, p. 68, Appendix.
1853. To ‘cap the climax,’ J. E. Dow asserts that Wallenstein was the ‘conqueror’ of Gustavus Adolphus!—Knick. Mag., xli. 276 (March).
1855. We can cap the climax by a leaf from our Hoosier reminiscences.—Chicago Tribune, n.d.
1858. To cap the climax … up would scamper the aforesaid Grimes.—Knick. Mag., li. 371 (April).
1860. All that was wanting to cap the climax to this absurd [Lincoln] nomination was the selection of Hannibal Hamlin as a candidate for the Vice-Presidency.—Corr., Richmond Enquirer, May 25, p. 4/5.
1861. To cap the climax of insult to our feelings, and this menace to our rights, this party nominated [Mr. Lincoln] for the Presidency.—Farewell of Mr. Clay of Alabama, U.S. Senate: O. J. Victor, ‘The History … of the Southern Rebellion,’ i. 258.
