cut capers

Idioms  

1. Also, cut a caper. Frolic or romp, as in The children cut capers in the pile of raked leaves. The noun caper comes from the Latin for “goat,” and the allusion is to act in the manner of a young goat clumsily frolicking about. The expression was first recorded in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night (1:3): “Faith, I can cut a caper.”

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Example Sentences

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cut capers

On this broad platform the infant publication immediately began to cut capers.

From Time Magazine Archive

Some bartenders in Yokohama and Kobe dress up on Christmas night like Santa Claus, serve drinks, cut capers.

From Time Magazine Archive

They didn't hurt me, but have lots of fun makin' me cut capers.

From Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves: Volume XVI, Texas Narratives, Part 4 by United States. Work Projects Administration

This insect, though not arrived at maturity, moved in some degree, and showed sufficient signs of the family to which it belonged, though it was not yet old enough to cut capers.

From Lachesis Lapponica A Tour in Lapland, Volume 1 by Carl von Linn?

He cut capers on it; and made it laugh, and cry, and whistle, and snort, and scream.

From Two Christmas Celebrations by Theodore Parker

Related Words

• cavort
• frolic
• gambol
• prance