mob-cap
[? f. mob n.2 The relation to Du. mopmuts (muts = cap) is not clear.]
An indoor cap worn by women in the 18th and early 19th c. (see quots.). Cf. mob n.2 3. Also transf.
| 1795 T. Wilkinson Wandering Patentee II. 137 On she came in a frock and a little mob-cap, and sang the song. 1812 H. & J. Smith Rej. Addr. v, Lady Macbeth is to have..a cotton gown, and a mob cap. 1819 Coleridge in Lit. Rem. (1836) II. 225 A mob-cap is still a word in common use for a morning cap which conceals the whole head of hair, and passes under the chin. 1846 Fairholt Costume 396 Mob-caps, that covered the hair, were worn [c 1780] with a full caul and deep border, secured by a broad riband. 1849 Dickens Dav. Copp. xiii, A mob-cap; I mean a cap, much more common then than now, with side-pieces fastening under the chin. 1884 Edna Lyall We Two ix, [Her] smooth grey hair was almost hidden by a huge mob-cap. 1971 Daily Tel. 19 Jan. 11/2 There's a whole range of Victoriana too, including washable mob-cap lamp-shades in lace and embroidered cotton. |
Hence mob-capped a., that wears a mob-cap; mob-cappish a., nonce-wd.
| 1828 Moore Mem. (1854) V. 251 Her beauty was gone; her dress was even prematurely old and mob-cappish. 1905 Author 1 Feb. 144 Misdrawings of mob-capped maidens. |