cap and bells

noun

a fool's cap hung with bells.

Origin of cap and bells

First recorded in 1880–85

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for cap and bells

Historical Examples of cap and bells

I wonder where we could have him measured for a cap-and-bells.
Modern Flirtations
Catherine Sinclair
Often a man's own angry pride / Is cap-and-bells for a fool.
Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources
James Wood
Every man I have met out here has the amazing guts to wear his crown of thorns as though it were a cap-and-bells.
Carry On
Coningsby Dawson

British Dictionary definitions for cap and bells

cap and bells

noun

the traditional garb of a court jester, including a cap with bells attached to it

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012