Emily Dickinson Lexicon

CA-PA-BIL'I-TY, n. [See Capable.]

The quality of being capable; capacity; capableness. – Shak.

CA'PA-BLE, a. [Fr. capable, from L. capio, to take. See Class Gb, No. 68, 69, 75, 83.]

1. Able to hold or contain; able to receive; sufficiently capacious; often followed by of; as, the room is not capable of receiving, or capable of holding the company.
2. Endued with power competent to the object; as, a man is capable of judging, or he is not capable.
3. Possessing mental powers; intelligent; able to understand, or receive into the mind; having a capacious mind; as, a capable judge; a capable instructor.
4. Susceptible; as, capable of pain or grief. – Prior.
5. Qualified for; susceptible of; as, a thing is capable of long duration; or it is capable of being colored or altered.
6. Qualified for, in a moral sense; having the legal power or capacity; as, a bastard is not capable of inheriting an estate.
7. Hollow. [Not now used.] – Shak.

CA'PA-BLE-NESS, n.

The state or quality of being capable; capacity; power of understanding; knowledge. – Killingbeck.

CA-PAC'I-FY, v.t.

To qualify. [Unusual.] – Barrow. Good.

CA-PA'CIOUS, a. [L. capax, from capio, to take or hold.]

1. Wide; large; that will hold much; as, a capacious vessel.
2. Broad; extensive; as, a capacious bay or harbor.
3. Extensive; comprehensive; able to take a wide view; as, a capacious mind.

CA-PA'CIOUS-LY, adv.

In a capacious manner or degree.

CA-PA'CIOUS-NESS, n.

1. Wideness; largeness; as of a vessel.
2. Extensiveness; largeness; as of a bay.
3. Comprehensiveness; power of taking a wide survey; applied to the mind.

CA-PAC'I-TATE, v.t. [See Capacity.]

1. To make capable; to enable; to furnish with natural power; as, to capacitate one for understanding a theorem.
2. To endue with moral qualifications; to qualify; to furnish with legal powers; as, to capacitate one for an office.

CA-PAC'I-TA-TED, pp.

Made capable; qualified.

CA-PAC-I-TA'TION, n.

The act of making capable.

CA-PAC'ITY, n. [L. capacitas, from capax, capio; Fr. capacité.]

1. Passive power; the power of containing, or holding; extent of room or space; as, the capacity of a vessel, or a cask.
2. The extent or comprehensiveness of the mind; the power of receiving ideas or knowledge; as, let instruction be adapted to the capacities of youth.
3. Active power; ability; applied to men or things; but less common and correct. The world does not include a cause endued with such capacities. – Blackmore.
4. State; condition; character; profession; occupation. A man may act in the capacity of a mechanic, of a friend, of an attorney, or of a statesman. He may have a natural or a political capacity.
5. Ability in a moral or legal sense; qualification; legal power or right; as, a man or a corporation may have a capacity to give or receive and hold estate.
6. In geometry, the solid contents of a body.
7. In chimistry, that state, quality or constitution of bodies, by which they absorb and contain, or render latent, any fluid; as the capacity of water for caloric.

CAP-A-PIE', adv. [capapee'; Fr.]

From head to foot; all over; as, armed cap-à-pie.

CA-PAR'I-SON, n. [Sp. caparazon; Port. caparazam, a cover put over the saddle of a horse, a cover for a coach; Fr. caparaçon.]

A cloth or covering laid over the saddle or furniture of a horse, especially a summer horse or horse of state. – Milton.

CA-PAR'ISON, v.t.

1. To cover with a cloth, as a horse. – Dryden.
2. To dress pompously; to adorn with rich dress. – Shak.

CA-PAR'I-SON-ED, pp.

Covered with a cloth; dressed pompously.

CA-PAR'I-SON-ING, ppr.

Dressing pompously.

CAP'CASE, n.

A covered case. – Burton.

CAPE, n. [Sp. and Port. cabo; It. capo; Fr. cap; D. kaap; Dan. kap; L. caput; Gr. κεφαλη; Sans. cabala, head. It signifies end, furthest point, from extending, shooting.]

1. A head-land; properly the head, point or termination of a neck of land, extending some distance into the sea, beyond the common shore; and hence the name is applied to the neck of land itself, indefinitely, as in Cape Cod, Cape Horn, Cape of Good Hope. It differs from a promontory in this, that it may be high or low land; but a promontory is a high bold termination of a neck of land.
2. The part of a garment hanging from the neck behind and over the shoulders.

CAP'E-LAN, n.

A small fish, about six inches in length, sholes of which appear off the coasts of Greenland, Iceland, and Newfoundland. They constitute a large part of the food of the Greenlanders. – Pennant.

CA-PEL'LA, n.

A bright fixed star in the left shoulder of the constellation Auriga. – Encyc.

CAP'EL-LET, n.

A kind of swelling, like a wen, growing on the heel of the hock on a horse, and on the point of the elbow. – Encyc.

CA'PER, n.¹

A leap; a skip; a spring; as, in dancing or mirth, or in the frolick of a goat or lamb.

CA'PER, n.² [Fr. capre; Arm. capresen; Sp. and Port. alcaparra; It. cappero; L. capparis; D. kapper; G. kaper; Syr. kapar; Ar. كَبَرٌ kabaron. The Ar. verb signifies to increase.]

The bud of the caper-bush, which is much used for pickling. The buds are collected before the flowers expand, and preserved in vinegar. The bush is a low shrub, generally growing from the joints of old walls, from fissures in rocks, and amongst rubbish, in the southern parts of Europe. Capparis spinosa. – Encyc.

CA'PER, v.i. [Fr. cabrer, to prance; cabriole, a goat-leap, a caper; It. capriola, a wild goat, a caper in dancing; Sp. cabriola; L. caper, a goat. But probably caper is from the root of capio, which signifies not merely to seize, but to shoot or reach forward, or to leap and seize. Hence it is probable that this word coincides in origin with Dan. kipper, to leap, whence Eng. to skip.]

To leap; to skip or jump; to prance; to spring. – Shak.

CA'PER-BUSH, n.

See CAPER.