▪ I. chape, n.
(tʃeɪp)
(In 5 Sc. chaip, schape, 8 cheap.)
[a. F. chape ‘a Churchman's Cope; a Judge's Hood;..the chape or locket of a scabbard; the top or crown on the top of a Bell; a Mill-hoope, or Mill-case’ (Cotgr.); ‘said in the arts of certain things which are applied over others, cover them, or envelop them’ (Littré), e.g. the cap of a compass needle, etc.; f. late L. capa, cappa, hood, cap, cape. Hence, according to Diez, Sp. and Pg. chapa ‘plate, thin piece of metal with which any thing may be plated’, which may also have influenced the Eng. use.]
† 1. A plate of metal with which anything is covered, overlaid, or ornamented. Obs.
| 1395 E.E. Wills (1882) 4 Ypouthered with chapes and scochons..of myn Auncestres armes. ? a 1400 Morte Arth. 2522 He bare sessenande in golde thre grayhondes of sable, With chapes & cheynes of chalke whytte sylver. |
2. The metal plate or mounting of a scabbard or sheath; particularly that which covers the point. In some early quots. it may mean the scabbard or sheath itself.
The following explanations also occur in Dicts.; ‘The transverse guard of a sword for a protection to the hand’ (Fairholt, cited by Ogilvie). Johnson says ‘the catch of any thing by which it is held in its place; as the hook of a scabbard by which it sticks in the belt; the point by which a buckle is held to the back strap’ [citing All's Well ‘the chape of his dagger’]. But here the chape of a dagger appears to be confused with that of a buckle.
| c 1400 Songs Costume (1849) 50 My baselard hath a sylver schape. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 69 Chape of a schethe, spirula. 1459 Inv. Sir J. Fastolf in Paston Lett. I. 478 Item, j. bollok haftyd dager..and j. chape thertoo. 1530 Palsgr. 204/1 Chape of a shethe, bovterolle de gayne. 1570 Levins Manip. 26 A chape, ferretum. 1590 Greene Mourn. Garm. (1616) 11 A whittle with a siluer chape. 1601 Shakes. All's Well iv. iii. 164 That had the whole theoricke of warre in the knot of his scarfe, and the practise in the chape of his dagger. 1601 Holland Pliny II. 483 Their scabberds and sheaths bee set out with siluer chapes, and their sword-girdles, hangers, and bawdricks, gingle again with thin plates of siluer. 1693 Sir T. Blount Nat. Hist. 295 A Sheath, without a Chape or top. 1766 Porny Heraldry Dict., Chape, the iron, brass, metal, or silver put at the end of the scabbard of cutlasses, swords, etc. 1844 Regul. & Ord. Army 101 Bayonet-scabbards, with brass chapes. |
3. The tip of a fox's tail. [From its suggesting the tip of a scabbard.]
| 1677 N. Cox Gentl. Recreat., Hunting (1706) 11 Terms of the Tail. Of a Fox, the Brush or Drag; and the Tip at the end is called the Chape. 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp., Brush of a fox..the tip or end of which is called the chape. |
4. The part of a buckle by which it is fastened to a strap or belt. [So in F.]
Some buckles are made with a metal chape, e.g. a stirrup-buckle; an ordinary strap-buckle is made without, and attached by a chape of leather.
| 1679 Plot Staffordsh. (1686) 376 The Spurr-Buckle maker..makes the buckle, the chape, tongue and roll. 1688 R. Holme Armoury iii. 304/2 A Chape..holdeth the Tongue of the Buckle in its proper place. 1702 Lond. Gaz. No. 3868/4 A Gold Buckle with a Steel Chape. 1720 Ibid. No. 5993/4 Buckles without cheaps. 1769 Chron. in Ann. Reg. 160/2 Steel chape silver buckles. 1779 Wesley Wks. (1872) IV. 163 The edge of another stair met my right buckle, and snapped the steel chape of it in two. 1796 Felton Carriages (1801) II. 145 The Buckles..are all made to be sewed in the leather, having only a middle bridge and a tongue, but no chape. 1886 from Harness-maker's Acct., 2 pieces leather, buckles, chapes, straps, and loops for portmanteau 2s. 6d. |
b. In some places: ‘The loop on harness..or on any leather strap, close to the buckle, through which the end of the strap is passed.’ Elworthy W. Somerset Wdbk.
Cf. Ogilvie: The sliding-loop on a belt to which a bayonet-scabbard is attached’.
Hence ˈchapemaker, a maker of buckle-chapes.
| 1886 Birmingh. Weekly Post 31 July 1/1 Chape makers..a chape, or anchor is a piece of work added to the tongue (or prong) of a buckle... Several makers in Birmingham. |
▪ II. chape, v.1
[f. prec. n.]
trans. To furnish (a scabbard, etc.) with a chape. Hence chaped (tʃeɪpt) ppl. a.
| c 1386 Chaucer Prol. 366 Hir knyues were chaped noght with bras But al with siluer wroght ful clene and weel. 1530 Palsgr. 480/2, I chape a sworde or dagger. I put a chape on the shethe. 1583 Stanyhurst æneis ii. (Arb.) 45 With his chaapt staf speedelye running. 1625 Markham Souldiers Accid. 3 Strong Scabards, chapt with Iron. |
▪ III. † chape, chaip, v.2 Obs. north. dial.
[Aphetic f. a-chape (e-chape, es-chape), a. OF. es-chaper, é-chaper, a-chaper (mod.F. échapper) to escape, q.v. Very common in early Sc.]
To escape.
| 1375 Barbour Bruce ii. 24 How he chapyt wes throw cas. c 1400 Destr. Troy 7904 In eschaunge of þo choise, þat chaped before. c 1425 Wyntoun Chron. II. 389 This King Richard wes livand..Of Poumfret as he chapit wase. 1535 Stewart Cron. Scot. I. 423 Tha will nocht chaip Siclicke ane deid. a 1555 Lyndesay Trag. 151, I chapit frome Captyuitie. |
▪ IV. chape, chaper
obs. ff. jape, -er.
| 1475 Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 806 Hec nuga, a chape. Hic nugator, chaper. |