English

Alternative forms

• cap-à-pie^[1]
• cap-à-piè^[2]
• cap-à-pié^[3]
• cap-a-pe^[4]

Adjective

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