The AI-powered English dictionary
plural nightcaps
A warm cloth cap worn while sleeping, often with pajamas, being common attire in northern Europe before effective home heating became widespread. examples
A beverage drunk before bed that is usually alcoholic. examples
(by extension, figuratively) Something that a person reads or listens to before bed. quotations examples
" […] and as a nightcap I happened to pick the copy of Plato […] "
1920, Granville Stanley Hall, Recreations of a Psychologist
(US, sports, baseball) The final match of a sporting contest, especially the second game of a baseball doubleheader. examples
(historical) A cap drawn over the face of the condemned person before they are hanged.
third-person singular simple present nightcaps, present participle nightcapping, simple past and past participle nightcapped
(intransitive) To drink an alcoholic beverage shortly before retiring to bed. quotations examples
Even better than breakfast, though, is nightcapping at the Waffle House . Nightcapping happens after the bars close, but before the southern sunrise: the hours when their jukeboxes play “Freebird” on a continual loop, […]
2010, Mark Decarlo, Fork on the Road: 400 Cities/One Stomach, page 229
We nightcapped at the Four Seasons Hotel George V, on the most extravagant cocktails I'd ever purchased in life.
2020, Mitchell Jackson, Survival Math: Notes on an All-American Family, page 143