black cap, ˈblack-cap, ˈblackcap
1. black cap: spec. that worn by English judges when in full dress, and consequently put on by them when passing sentence of death upon a prisoner.
| 1838 Dickens O. Twist lii, The jury returned..The judge assumed the black cap. |
2. One who wears a black cap or head-dress.
| 1856 J. Grant Bl. Dragoon v, The old blackcaps frowned terribly at..this fashion. |
3. blackcap: A name given to various birds having the top of the head black; esp. by English writers to the small bird also called Blackcap Warbler, Curruca (or Motacilla) atricapilla.
Also applied locally to: a. Several species of Parus, as P. major the Great Tit, P. palustris the Marsh Tit, P. ater the Cole Tit, and in U.S. P. atricapillus the Blackcap Tit, or Chickadee; b. the Black-headed Bunting; c. the Black-headed Gull; d. the Stonechat; and casually to others.
| 1678 Ray Willughby's Ornith. 241 The Marsh Titmouse or Black-cap. Ibid. 347 The Pewit or Black-cap, called in some places, the Sea-Crow and Mire-Crow. 1768 Pennant Zool. II. 262 The black cap is a bird of passage, leaving us before winter. 1789 G. White Selborne (1853) 145 The black-cap has..a full sweet deep loud and wild pipe. 1802 G. Montagu Ornith. Dict. (1833) 350 Great Black-headed Tomtit, Blackcap. Ibid. 415 Black-bonnet, Black-cap, prov. names for the Black-headed Bunting, Emberiza schœniclus. 1863 Yng. England Aug. 127 In Wiltshire I have heard the red-backed shrike..called the black cap. 1883 G. Allen in Knowledge 25 May 304/1 Blackcaps are above everything hangers-on of civilisation. |
4. a. black-cap pudding: a boiled batter pudding into which a handful of currants or raisins is dropped before boiling, which sink to the bottom, and form a black capping when the pudding is reversed out of the basin or mould.
| 1822 W. Kitchiner Cook's Oracle 517. |
b. A halved apple baked with the flat side downwards and a ‘cap’ of sugar.
| 1723 J. Nott Cook's & Confectioner's Dict. No. 103 B, Black Cap. Take..large Pippins..cut them in halves..squeeze a Lemon..over them..grate over them..Sugar..put them into a quick Oven. 1958 Listener 27 Nov. 903/1 Sprinkle a ‘cap’ of caster sugar on each [sc. apple]. Bake for twenty or twenty-five minutes above the chicken, and when the bird goes to the top of the oven, put the ‘blackcaps’ in its place. |
5. A variety of raspberry; the Black Raspberry, Rubus occidentalis. U.S.
| 1847 W. Darlington Agric. Bot. 127 Rubus occidentalis..Wild or Black Raspberry. Thimble-berry. Black Caps. 1886 Harper's Mag. July 281/2 There is another American species of raspberry (Rubus occidentalis) that is almost as dear to memory as the wild strawberry—the thimble-berry, or black-cap. 1946 B. MacDonald Egg & I (1947) vi. 85 Alder, salal, wild raspberry and blackcaps. |