cap-a-pie

English

Alternative forms

• cap-à-pie, cap-à-piè, cap-à-pié, cap-a-pe, cap-a-pee, cap-apée, capapie

Etymology

From Old French (de) cap a pié (Modern French de pied en cap).

Adverb

cap-a-pie (not comparable)

1. From head to toe, especially of armor or other military accoutrements.
   • 1661–67, 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.

   • 1808–10, William Hickey, Memoirs of a Georgian Rake, Folio Society 1995, p. 129:

     I sallied forth cap-à-pie in my Madras regimentals, intending to accompany Brent to Westminster Abbey, and to take a coach at the first stand we came to.

   • 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.