caper

plural capers

1. A playful leap or jump.
2. A jump while dancing.
3. A prank or practical joke.
4. plural normallyPlayful behaviour.
5. figurativelyA crime, especially an elaborate heist, or a narrative about such a crime.

   The elusive 87-year-old author’s new book is a noir caper set during the big band era following a detective in search of a cheese heiress[.]

   2025 April 9, Lucy Knight, “Thomas Pynchon announces Shadow Ticket, his first novel in more than a decade”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

   1 more example

   His caper had failed to find a comic resolution. Instead, there had been a genre switch, and the madcap adventure had turned serious. Or had this bleakness underlain the caper from the start?

   2022, Jennifer Egan, “i, the Protagonist”, in The Candy House

present singular third person capers · participle present capering · participle past capered · past capered

1. To leap or jump about in a sprightly or playful manner.

   He capered before them down towards the fortyfoot hole, fluttering his winglike hands, leaping nimbly, Mercury’s hat quivering in the fresh wind that bore back to them his brief birdsweet cries.

   1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 1]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC

2. To jump as part of a dance.
3. To engage in playful behaviour.
4. obsoleteTo run at speed.

   Then up Jack got. And home did trot, As fast as he could caper; Dame Gill did the job, To plaster his nob, With vinegar and brown paper.

   1810, Jack and Jill, and old Dame Gill, York: J. Kendrew

   1 more example

   So, off we go, ever and anon capering along the streets at a speed which seems rather superfluous in those who have the whole day at their commandment, as Falstaff says.

   1871, John Ramsay, The Selected Writings of John Ramsay, Aberdeen: William Blackwood and Sons, page 245

plural capers

1. The pungent grayish green flower bud of the European and Oriental caper (Capparis spinosa), which is pickled and eaten.

   Synonyms: caperberry

2. A plant of the genus Capparis.

   Synonyms: caper bush, caper tree, caperberry

plural capers

1. A vessel formerly used by the Dutch; privateer.

plural capers

1. ScotlandThe capercaillie.