Dictionary

huffcap en · NOUN

Etymology

From huff + cap. The ale is called this "because it induced people to set their caps in a bold huffing fashion."

Meanings

1. (countable, obsolete, uncountable) Strong ale.
   • Then, when the Nippitatum, this Huf-cap (as they call it) and this nectar of lyfe, is ſet abroche, wel is he that can get the ſooneſt to it, and ſpend the moſt at it; for he that fitteth the cloſeſt to it, and ſpends the moſte at it, he is counted the godlieſt man of all the reſt; but who either cannot, for pinching pouertie, or otherwiſe, wil not ſtick to it, he is counted one deſtitute bothe of vertue and godlynes. 1583, Philip Stubbes, “The Manner of Church-ales in Ailgna”, in Furnivall, Frederick James, editor, The Anatomie of Abuses; republished as Phillip Stubbes's Anatomy of Abuses in England in Shakspere's Youth, A.D. 1583, London: The New Shakspere Society, 1882, page 150:
   • To quench the scorching heat of our parched throtes, with the best nippitatum in this toun, which is commonly called huffcap, it will make a man look as though he had seen the devil, and quickly move him to call his own father whoreson. 1576, Ulpian Fulwell, Ars adulandi, or, The Art of Flattery:
2. (countable, obsolete, uncountable) A bully or blusterer.
   • Prethee tell me true, was not this Huff-cap once the Indian Emperour, and at another time did not he call himself Maximine? a. 1677, Martin Clifford, “The Second Letter”, in Notes Upon Mr. Dryden's Poems in Four Letters, published 1687:
   • I am with child, till I behold this huff-cap. 1599, Thomas Dekker, The Shoemaker's Holiday, act 5, scene 3; Rhys, Ernest, editor, Thomas Dekker, unexpurgated edition, London: Vizetelly & Co, 1887, page 78:

Forms

Synonyms

braggart