decap

English

Etymology

From de- +‎ cap.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /diːˈkæp/

Verb

decap (third-person singular simple present decaps, present participle decapping, simple past and past participle decapped)

1. To remove a cap.
   • 2014, Scott Peterson, Me Against My Brother, page 180:

     Late one night in 1992, in Sudan's desiccated capital of Khartoum—the famous confluence of the Blue and White Nile Rivers, from where they blend together and flow deeply north, toward Egypt—an old Englishman broke Islamic law and decapped a bottle of Johnny Walker Red.

   1. (biology) To enzymatically remove a cap from mRNA.
   2. (hardware) To remove the epoxy from an integrated circuit.
   3. (military, chiefly nautical) To cause an armor-piercing shell to lose its hardened cap, degrading its ability to penetrate armor.
   4. To remove an upper limit.
      • 1987, United States. Army Materiel Command. Historical Office, Annual historical review, page 16:

        In October 1985 ARDC successfully decapped the AIF and was operating under the RDTE appropriation .

      • 1997, Economic Review - Volume 28, page 35:

        During 1995 the mark up on borrowed capital was around 17.5% which was decapped, consequently the banks started charging mark up rate as high as 24%.

2. To change an uppercase letter to lowercase; to decapitalize.
   • 1974, Мариэтта Сергеевна Шагинян, Retracing Lenin's Steps, page 106:

     In English this pronoun is always written with a capital letter, while "you", the second person singular, which in Russian out of courtesy we spell with a capital, is decapped in English.

Derived terms

• decapper

 

Anagrams

• caped, paced