cap-a-pie

See also: capapie

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Old French (de) cap à pied (Modern French de pied en cap).[5]

Adverb

cap-a-pie (not comparable)

  1. From head to toe.
    • XVII cent., Abraham Cowley, The Dangers of an Honest Man in much Company
      If twenty thousand naked Americans were not able to resist the assaults of but twenty well-armed Spaniards, I see little possibility for one honest man to defend himself against twenty thousand knaves, who are all furnished cap-a-pie with the defensive arms of worldly prudence, and the offensive, too, of craft and malice.
    • 1857, Anthony Trollope, Barchester Towers
      Miss Thorne when fully dressed might be said to have been armed cap-a-pie, and she was always fully dressed, as far as was ever known to mortal man.

References
  1. A Dictionary of English Phrases (1922)
  2. The Universal Magazine Vol.90 p.71 (1792)
  3. David Booth (1836) An Analytical Dictionary of the English Language, Simpkin, Marshall and Company, London
  4. The London Encyclopaedia vol.5 p.118 (1829) Thomas Tegg, London
  5. Ebenezer Cobham Brewer (1895) Dictionary of Phrase and Fable; giving the Derivation, Source, or Origin of Common Phrases, Allusions, and Words that Have a Tale to Tell, Vol.1 p.212, Cassell and Company, London
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