# capping

Pronunciation: say "KAP-ing" US /ˈkæpɪŋ/, UK /ˈkapɪŋ/

## Verb

1. Present participle and gerund of cap. — present participle and gerund of cap
   - Simple: The -ing form of cap. Use it after am, is, are, was or were, or to name the action.
   - _Workers are capping the chimney to stop birds from nesting inside._
   - _Capping each pen after use keeps the ink from drying out._

## Noun

2. The act of lying or exaggerating. *(slang)*
   - Simple: Lying or saying things that are not true, often to seem impressive.
   - _His teammates called out the capping as soon as he claimed he dunked over three defenders._
   - _She swore there was no capping behind her account of the night._
3. The taking off of one's hat as a gesture of respect toward someone.
   - Simple: The act of taking off your hat to show respect.
   - _The old gentleman's capping to passing ladies was a habit from another era._
   - _A brief capping acknowledged the funeral procession as it moved down the street._
4. The sealing of an oil well by covering over its borehole.
   - Simple: Covering and sealing the hole of an oil well.
   - _The capping of the abandoned well prevented further contamination of the groundwater._
   - _Engineers planned the capping carefully to withstand the pressure from below._
5. In finance, the sale of a security or similar holding shortly before an expiration date.
   - Simple: Selling a financial product, like a stock, when its end date is close.
   - _Investigators suspected capping in the heavy selling that hit the shares minutes before expiry._
   - _The exchange flagged the capping as a possible attempt to influence the settlement value._
6. The saving of a television broadcast as a recording on one's own computer.
   - Simple: Recording a TV show and saving it onto your computer.
   - _His capping of the broadcast preserved an episode the network later deleted._
   - _Capping the overnight news let her review the segment frame by frame._
7. In mining geology, the leached top portion of a rock body that still holds sulfide minerals scattered through it.
   - Simple: The worn-down top layer of rock that still holds some minerals containing metal.
   - _Drilling through the capping revealed the richer sulfide zone beneath it._
   - _The survey mapped the capping across the ridge to outline the buried ore body._
8. In geometry, turning a polyhedron into a stellated one by building a pyramid on each of its faces.
   - Simple: Turning a 3D shape into a star shape by adding a small pyramid to each side.
   - _The capping of the dodecahedron yielded a striking stellated form._
   - _Through capping, a plain octahedron grows a sharp point on every face._
9. The method of capitalizing every other word in social media titles and tags to make them more readable than unbroken case.
   - Simple: Writing every other word in capital letters to make a hashtag easier to read.
   - _A bit of capping turned the cramped hashtag into something readers could actually parse._
   - _Capping helps a multi-word tag stand out without the gaps that spaces would add._

## Origin

Formed from "cap" combined with the suffix "-ing".

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/capping (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).