The expressions your mother wears combat boots and your mother wears army boots descend from the African-American tradition of the Dozens, also known as sounding or capping or snapping, where people try to top each other’s insults. This is part of a...
A Nevada high-schooler wonders about the slang terms cap meaning “to lie” and no cap, meaning I’m not lying. Many people associate it with the Future & Young Thug song “No Cap.” However, the expression goes back to the 1500s, when you might cap an...
Cindy in Virginia Beach, Virginia, is going through her mother’s diary from the 1930’s and finds the term high-hat used as a transitive verb. To high-hat someone means to act in a supercilious, condescending, affected manner, as if wearing a top hat...
capping n.— «Taghizadeh allegedly paid people to bring him potential litigants to sue auto insurance companies—an illegal practice known as “capping,” said Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Gregory Alker of the Automobile Insurance Task Force...

