outcap

outcap

English

Etymology

From out- +‎ cap.

Verb

outcap (third-person singular simple present outcaps, present participle outcapping, simple past and past participle outcapped)

1. (rare) To cap or top; exceed.
   • 1721, Robert Manning, A Plain and Rational Account of the Catholick Faith, page 111:

     I ſhall only inſtance in the Quakers, who of all People in the World apply themſelves moſt to the Reading of Scriptures: nay there is ſcarce a Quaker Woman, but ſhall outcap the ableſt Divine of any other Religion in Scripture Texts.

   • 1849, William Nelson Hutchinson, “Dog-breaking—the Pocket and the Stud”, in Quarterly Review, volume 84, page 355:

     In rapping out oaths a cad outcaps a Chesterfield; scarcely bearable in a buss, oaths in type are too bad, and at such malice prepense printers' devils recoil.

   • 1893, Albion W. Tourgée, Out of the Sunset Sea, Merrill & Baker, page 282:

     The new myth certainly outcapped the Babeque fable, but why should they follow myths forever?

   • 1910, Joseph Edward Sanderson, The First Century of Methodism in Canada: 1840-1883, W. Briggs, page 97:

     I thought myself pretty tall, but many of the Senecas, Oneidas, and Onondagas far outcapped me.

2. (nonce word) To cap ("lie") more than.
   • 1990, Ben Carson, Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story, Zondervan, →ISBN, page 49:

     A mean remark? Certainly, but I comforted myself by saying, "Everybody does it. Outcapping everyone else is the only way to survive."