Chapter Canoe' to Cap of C by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Canvas City (A). A military encampment.

“The Grand Master assented, and they proceeded accordingly, ... avoiding the most inhabited parts of the canvas city.”- Sir W. Scott: The Talisman, chap. x.

“In 1851, during the gold rush, a town of tents, known as Canvas Town, rose into being on the St. Kilda Road, Melbourne. Several thousand inhabitants lived in this temporary settlement, which was laid out in streets and lasted for several months.”- Cities of the World; Melbourne.

Caora A river, on the banks of which are a people whose heads grow beneath their shoulders. Their eyes are in their shoulders, and their mouths in the middle of their breasts. (Hakluyt: Voyages, 1598.) Raleigh, in his Description of Guiana, gives a similar account of a race of men. (See Blemmyes .)

“The Anthropophagi and men whose heads
Do grow beneath their shoulders.”
Shakespeare: Othello, i. 3.

Cap    Black cap (See page 140, Black Cap .)
   Cater cap. A square cap or mortar-board. (French, quartier.)
   College cap. A trencher like the caps worn at the English Universities by students and bachelors of art, doctors of divinity, etc.
   Fool's cap. A cylindrical cap with feather and bells, such as licensed Fools used to wear.
   Forked cap. A bishop's mitre. For the paper so called, see Foolscap.
   John Knox cap (A). A cap made of black silk velvet.

“A cap of black silk velvet, after the John Knox fashion.”- Edinburgh University Calendar.

   Monmouth cap (A). (See Monmouth.)
   Phrygian cap (A). Cap of liberty (q.v.).
   Scotch cap. A cloth cap worn commonly in Scotland.
   Cap and bells. The insignia of a professional fool or jester.
   A feather in one's cap. An achievement to be proud of; something creditable.
   Square cap. A trencher or “mortar-board,” like the University cap.
   Statute cap. A woollen cap ordered by statute to be worn on holidays by all citizens for the benefit of the woollen trade. To a similar end, persons were obliged to be buried at death in flannel.

“Well, better wits have worn plain statute
caps.”- Shakespeare: Love's Labour Lost, v 2.

   Trencher cap, or mortar-board. A cap with a square board, generally covered with black cloth.
   I must put on my considering cap. I must think about the matter before I give a final answer. The allusion is to a conjurer's cap.
   If the cap fits, wear it. If the remark applies to you, apply it to yourself. Hats and caps differ very slightly in size and appearance, but everyone knows his own when he puts it on.
   Setting her cap at him. Trying to catch him for a sweetheart or a husband. The lady puts on the most becoming of her caps, to attract the attention and admiration of the favoured gentleman.
   To gain the cap. To obtain a bow from another out of respect.

“Such gains the cap of him that makes them fine,
But keeps his book uncrossed.”
Shakespeare: Cymbeline, iii. 3.

   To pull caps. To quarrel like two women, who pull each other's caps.
   Your cap is all on one side. The French have the phrase Mettre son bonnet de travers, meaning “to be in an ill-humour.” M. Hilaire le Gai explains it thus: “La plupart des tapageurs de profession portent ordinairement le chapeau sur l'oreille. ” It is quite certain that workmen, when they are bothered, push their cap on one side of the head, generally over the right ear, because the right hand is occupied.