mob cap

plural mob caps · alternative mob-cap · alternative mobcap

1. historicalA plain cap or headdress for women or girls, especially one tied under the chin by a very broad band, and having a puffy crown and frills.

   You must get a brown gown, and a white apron, and a mob cap, and we must make you a few wrinkles, and a little of the crowsfoot at the corner of your eyes, and you will be a very proper, little old woman.

   1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter XV, in Mansfield Park: […], volume I, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, pages 305–306

   1 more example

   She was dressed entirely in flowing black cerements and wore a little lacy mob-cap on a mass of dead-looking yellowish white hair; her features were still beautiful, but her face was completely covered with mauve face-powder.

   1970, John Glassco, Memoirs of Montparnasse, New York, published 2007, page 161

2. modern-day useA disposable head covering with an elasticated band, worn for cleanliness in industrial settings.