night-cap

plural night-caps

1. alternativeAlternative form of nightcap.

   You skie-ſtaring Cocks combes you: you fat braines, out upon you; you are good for nothing but to ſweat night-caps, and make rug-gownes deare: […]

   1599 (first performance), B. I. [i.e., Ben Jonson], The Comicall Satyre of Euery Man out of His Humor. […], London: […] [Adam Islip] for William Holme, […], published 1600, →OCLC, Act III, scene ii, signature K, verso

   5 more examples

   1769, Samuel Johnson, cited in James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson, London: Charles Dilly, Volume 1, p. 311, You remember the gentleman in “The Spectator,” who had a commission of lunacy taken out against him for his extreme singularity, such as never wearing a wig, but a night-cap. Now, Sir, abstractedly, the night-cap was best; but, relatively, the advantage was overbalanced by his making the boys run after him.

   After a little while the good lady turned out in her petticoat and stays, with a blanket over her shoulders, and a night-cap so beflapped and befrilled as gave the pitiful countenance within it the appearance of being decked out for a funeral.

   1821, The Privateer: A Tale, volume 1, page 20

   —Miss Luna, muffling up her head, Went with the ague, straight to bed, Put out her lamp, and bade them tell She could not hear her mistress' bell, Begg'd them with motherwort to dose her, And drew her cloudy night-cap closer.—

   1827, Lydia Sigourney, Poems, The Comet of 1825, page 151

   Rum Fustian is a "night-cap" made precisely in the same way as the preceding [egg-posset or egg-flip], with the yolks of twelve eggs, a quart of strong home-brewed beer, a bottle of white wine, half-a-pint of gin, a grated nutmeg, the juice from the peel of a lemon, a small quantity of cinnamon, and sugar sufficient to sweeten it.

   1832, William Hone, “January 9”, in The Year Book of Daily Recreation and Information, […], London: […] [J. Haddon] for Thomas Tegg, […], →OCLC, column 62

   The glitter of gold, or of diamonds, will but hurt sore eyes instead of curing them; and an aching head will be no more eased by wearing a crown, than a common night-cap.

   1833, Elia [pseudonym; Charles Lamb], “The Genteel Style in Writing”, in The Last Essays of Elia. […], London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 111