capstone
English
Etymology
From Middle English capston; equivalent to cap + stone.
Noun
capstone (plural capstones)
- Any of the stones making up the top layer of a wall; a coping stone.
- (figuratively) A crowning achievement, culmination or finishing touch.
- 1904, Guy Wetmore Carryl, Far from the Maddening Girls, chapter 5
- “You see, I’ve never had a girl friend,” I added, by way of topping the obelisk of silliness with the capstone of fatuity.
- 1969, NASA, The Post-Apollo Space Program: Directions for the Future
- Success of the Apollo program has been the capstone to a series of significant accomplishments for the United States in space in a broad spectrum of manned and unmanned exploration missions and in the application of space techniques for the benefit of man.
- 1904, Guy Wetmore Carryl, Far from the Maddening Girls, chapter 5
Synonyms
- capestane, copestone
Translations
any of the stones making up the top layer of a wall
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a crowning achievement
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Verb
capstone (third-person singular simple present capstones, present participle capstoning, simple past and past participle capstoned)
- (transitive) To complete as a crowning achievement; to top off.
- 2012, Keith Brooke, Strange Divisions and Alien Territories (page 23)
- Capstoning a decade's worth of linked short stories, The Quiet War (2008) was a vivid and tense novel about a solar system sliding into conflict.
- 2012, Keith Brooke, Strange Divisions and Alien Territories (page 23)
- (transitive, US, military, informal) To train in the Capstone Military Leadership Program.
- 1981, Army Reserve Magazine (volumes 27-28, page 24)
- “Capstoned” units are now able to train and plan in peacetime with the command with which they will fight in wartime.
- 1981, Army Reserve Magazine (volumes 27-28, page 24)
See also
- caprock
- keystone
Anagrams
- caponets, opencast, patonces, potances