nightcap

plural nightcaps · alternative night cap · alternative night-cap

1. businessA warm cloth cap worn while sleeping, often with pajamas, being common attire in northern Europe before effective home heating became widespread.First known use 14th c.

   Winston wore a nightcap to stave off the cold.

2. A beverage drunk before bed that is usually alcoholic.First known use 1818.

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

   2 more examples

   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.

   1980 August 2, Andrea F. Loewenstein, “Random Lust”, in Gay Community News, page 14

   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.

   2024 November 8, Justin McCurry, “Coffee, sandwiches, underwear, beer: a day in the life of Japan’s beloved konbini stores”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

3. broadlyfigurativelySomething that a person reads or listens to before bed.

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

   1920, Granville Stanley Hall, Recreations of a Psychologist

4. USball gamesThe final match of a sporting contest, especially the second game of a baseball doubleheader.First known use 1939.
5. historicalA cap drawn over the face of the condemned person before they are hanged.

present singular third person nightcaps · participle present nightcapping · participle past nightcapped · past nightcapped · alternative night cap · alternative night-cap

1. intransitiveTo drink an alcoholic beverage shortly before retiring to bed.

   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

   1 more example

   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

1. A locality in the Byron council area and the Lismore council area, north-eastern New South Wales, Australia.