Meaning

(clothing) A warm cloth cap worn while sleeping, often with pajamas, being common attire in northern Europe before effective home heating became widespread..

Definitions by Sense

1. (clothing) A warm cloth cap worn while sleeping, often with pajamas, being common attire in northern Europe before effective home heating became widespread.
2. A beverage drunk before bed that is usually alcoholic.
3. (by extension, figuratively) Something that a person reads or listens to before bed.
4. (US, sports, baseball) The final match of a sporting contest, especially the second game of a baseball doubleheader.
5. (historical) A cap drawn over the face of the condemned person before they are hanged.
6. (intransitive) To drink an alcoholic beverage shortly before retiring to bed.

Example Sentences

Winston wore a nightcap to stave off the cold.

I'll make myself a nightcap of whisky and lemon before heading to bed.

You know the other night, when I had dinner with Afro-Dite? When Jo was in San Francisco? Well we dropped into the Sinners, right, just for a nightcap.

This week I took up the relatively simple challenge of buying breakfast, lunch and dinner—and a nightcap—exclusively from konbini, as well as completing a couple of admin tasks.

"[…] and as a nightcap I happened to pick the copy of Plato […]"

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, […]

We nightcapped at the Four Seasons Hotel George V, on the most extravagant cocktails I'd ever purchased in life.

Word Forms

• nightcaps
• night cap
• night-cap
• nightcapping
• nightcapped

Related Words

When Should You Use Nightcap?

Use nightcap when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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