Dictionary

chape en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /t͡ʃeɪp/

Etymology

From Middle English chape, from Old French chape (“a churchman's cope, a cover, a chape”), from Latin cappa, itself derived from Latin caput (“the head”). Doublet of cap, cape, and cope.

Meanings

1. The lower metallic cap at the end of a sword's scabbard.
   • Sword and scabbard fittings comprise the sword pommel, the chape at the end of the scabbard, the sword guard at the top of the blade, the sword slide and its accompanying reverse fitting (the latter being sometimes referred to as a girdle-clasp) that were normally bound into the scabbard[…] 2012 December 6, Roger Keverne, Jade, Springer, →ISBN, page 119:
   • The blade is 33 in. long, of triangular section, etched, gilt and blued at the hilt. The scabbard is covered with black sole-skin, with a gilt locket and chape; the locket inscribed BLAND AND FOSTER, SWORD CUTLERS[…] 1904, Sir Guy Francis Laking, The Armoury of Windsor Castle: European Section, page 181:
   • The scabbard ended in a chape, which took two forms: sometimes it terminated in a ball, and sometimes in a crescent or fish-tail. 2013 June 17, Henri Hubert, The Rise of the Celts, Routledge, →ISBN:
2. (alt-of, alternative) Alternative form of chappe (“rainguard”) (piece fitted to a sword's crossguard).
   alt of chappe
   • […] the swords nevertheless do not lack the chape, the small leather piece that overlaps the crossguard in a semi-circle over the base of the blade and that is often referred to as a rain guard. 2018 July 30, Dierk Hagedorn, Bartlomiej Walczak, Medieval Armoured Combat: The 1450 Fencing Manuscript from New Haven, Casemate Publishers, →ISBN:
3. (archaic) The piece by which an object is attached to something, such as the frog of a scabbard or the metal loop at the back of a buckle by which it is fastened to a strap.
   • At the end of each point a buckle is attached by means of a leather chape, and it is to these buckles that the two […] 1893, Saddlery and Harness, page 113:
   • SABRE-BELT, ( black buff-leather.) — Length 36 to 40 inches, width 1.9 inch; 2 leather chapes sewed on the outside of the belt for attaching 2 brass loops […] 1862, United States. Army. Ordnance Department, The Ordnance Manual for the Use of the Officers of the United States Army, page 229:
4. The tip of a fox's tail.

Forms

Deriveds

chaped · chapeless

Translations (4)

bg обков (metal cap of a scabbard) · fi kenkäin (metal cap of a scabbard) · is döggskór (metal cap of a scabbard) · pt ponteira (metal cap of a scabbard)