(figuratively) A crime, especially an elaborate heist, or a narrative about such a crime.
His caper had failed to find a comic resolution. Instead, there had been a genre switch, and the madcap adventure had turned serious. Or had this bleakness underlain the caper from the start? 2022, Jennifer Egan, “i, the Protagonist”, in The Candy House:
The elusive 87-year-old author’s new book is a noir caper set during the big band era following a detective in search of a cheese heiress[.] 2025 April 9, Lucy Knight, “Thomas Pynchon announces Shadow Ticket, his first novel in more than a decade”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
To leap or jump about in a sprightly or playful manner.
He capered before them down towards the fortyfoot hole, fluttering his winglike hands, leaping nimbly, Mercury’s hat quivering in the fresh wind that bore back to them his brief birdsweet cries. 1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 1]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC:
To jump as part of a dance.
To engage in playful behaviour.
(obsolete) To run at speed.
Then up Jack got.
And home did trot,
As fast as he could caper;
Dame Gill did the job,
To plaster his nob,
With vinegar and brown paper. 1810, Jack and Jill, and old Dame Gill, York: J. Kendrew:
So, off we go, ever and anon capering along the streets at a speed which seems rather superfluous in those who have the whole day at their commandment, as Falstaff says. 1871, John Ramsay, The Selected Writings of John Ramsay, Aberdeen: William Blackwood and Sons, page 245:
fr cabrioler (jump about playfully) · ro țopăi (jump about playfully) · cmn 雀躍 /雀跃 (jump about playfully) · cs poskakovat (jump about playfully) · ro zburda (jump about playfully) · nl opspringen (jump about playfully) · gl cabriolar (jump about playfully) · it saltellare (jump about playfully) · uk підскакувати (jump about playfully) · fi loikkia (jump about playfully) · hu ugrál (jump about playfully) · bg подрипвам (jump about playfully) · mi pōteketeke (jump about playfully) · fr batifoler (jump about playfully) · sv skutta (jump about playfully) · hu ugrándozik (jump about playfully) · hu ugrabugrál (jump about playfully) · ru скака́ть (jump about playfully) · mi pōtēteke (jump about playfully) · ro sări (jump about playfully) · he קִפֵּץ (jump about playfully) · fi pomppia (jump about playfully) · nl bokkesprong maken (jump about playfully) · cs křepčit (jump about playfully) · bg подскачам (jump about playfully) · uk підстрибувати (jump about playfully)