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

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

From Time Magazine Archive

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

From Time Magazine Archive

The performers were all humorous, frisky fellows, who loved to cut capers in private life; but as soon as they were arranged for the dance, they conducted themselves like so many mutes at a funeral.

From The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 2 (of 25) by Stevenson, Robert Louis

But Fido ran in, who loved little Frank, And the shoes were remembered no more; They began to cut capers, but at the first prank Down tumbled poor Frank on the floor.

From Hymns, Songs, and Fables, for Young People by Follen, Eliza Lee Cabot

While I don’t congratulate anybody on getting pinched, I’m glad that your friends, if they must cut capers, have you to help them out.

From Lonesome Town by Dorrance, Ethel

Related Words

• cavort
• frolic
• gambol
• prance