night-cap

night-cap (plural night-caps)

1. Alternative form of nightcap.
   • 1599 (first performance), B. I. [i.e., Ben Jonson], The Comicall Satyre of Euery Man out of His Humor. , London: for William Holme, , published 1600, →OCLC, Act III, scene ii, signature K, verso:

     You skie-ſtaring Cocks combes you: you fat braines, out upon you; you are good for nothing but to ſweat night-caps, and make rug-gownes deare: […]

   • 1769, Samuel Johnson, cited in James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson, London: Charles Dilly, Volume 1, p. 311,

     You remember the gentleman in “The Spectator,” who had a commission of lunacy taken out against him for his extreme singularity, such as never wearing a wig, but a night-cap. Now, Sir, abstractedly, the night-cap was best; but, relatively, the advantage was overbalanced by his making the boys run after him.

   • 1821, The Privateer: A Tale, volume 1, page 20:

     After a little while the good lady turned out in her petticoat and stays, with a blanket over her shoulders, and a night-cap so beflapped and befrilled as gave the pitiful countenance within it the appearance of being decked out for a funeral.

   • 1827, Lydia Sigourney, Poems, The Comet of 1825, page 151:

     —Miss Luna, muffling up her head,
     Went with the ague, straight to bed,
     Put out her lamp, and bade them tell
     She could not hear her mistress' bell,
     Begg'd them with motherwort to dose her,
     And drew her cloudy night-cap closer.—

   • 1832, William Hone, “January 9”, in The Year Book of Daily Recreation and Information, , London: for Thomas Tegg, , →OCLC, column 62:

     Rum Fustian is a "night-cap" made precisely in the same way as the preceding [egg-posset or egg-flip], with the yolks of twelve eggs, a quart of strong home-brewed beer, a bottle of white wine, half-a-pint of gin, a grated nutmeg, the juice from the peel of a lemon, a small quantity of cinnamon, and sugar sufficient to sweeten it.

   • 1833, Elia [pseudonym; Charles Lamb], “The Genteel Style in Writing”, in The Last Essays of Elia. , London: Edward Moxon, , →OCLC, page 111:

     The glitter of gold, or of diamonds, will but hurt sore eyes instead of curing them; and an aching head will be no more eased by wearing a crown, than a common night-cap.

   • 1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “Stave I. Marley’s Ghost.”, in A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas, London: Chapman & Hall, , →OCLC, pages 22–23:

     Thus secured against surprise, he took off his cravat; put on his dressing-gown and slippers, and his night-cap; and sat down before the fire to take his gruel.

   • 1849, Water-cure Journal:

     if the hearing is affected, Isopathy makes you a night-cap trimmed with the ears of a calf!

   • c. 1862, “Total Abstinence for ministers”, in Journal of the American Temperance Union:

     As an ordinary drinker, he always used to find it necessary to have a glass of something as a night-cap, and then he always woke up in the morning hot and feverish, and Mondayish.

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