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Glite Dictionary
🥃 A bedtime drink 🧢 A bed hat ⚾ A final game
nightcap

nightcap

1 6.9
The last game played the same day between the same teams
  • noun
  • /ˈnaɪtˌkæp/
  • Jargon
translation icon : partido de cierre
  • A 2-0 shutout in the twilighter, and a 4-1 win in the nightcap.
  • the nightcap game

Examples

  • In Friday's nightcap, newcomer Sarah Fobbs blasted a three-run homer to center field in the fifth inning to put the Colonels in front by a count of 7-0.

    Blog text (3)

  • Quarter of one, but there was still plenty of time to make the nightcap of the doubleheader if we left now.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • 10:30 p.m. ET: In the nightcap, the Nuggets will play the Clippers at Staples Center.

    Blog text (24)

  • The nightcap was the division-leading 3-1 Chargers taking on the winless 0-4 Saints on Sunday Night Football.

    Blog text (30)

  • The Red Sox won the first game 2-0 and lost the nightcap 4-1.

  • In the nightcap, the Huskers soared to a 7-0 lead after two innings.

  • A six-run sixth powered NU in the nightcap, as the Huskers completed a doubleheader sweep with a 9-3 win.

How Late

nightcap
  • Jargon
1 6.9
main event
37 3.0
opener
  • Jargon
7 7.4

Surface Forms

nightcap singular
nightcaps plural

Morphology

nightcap = night + cap (semi-transparent) = night + cap

The compound is literal in form, but the sense 'final game' is metaphorical ('cap' as 'finisher') and not fully predictable from the parts.

Etymology

In sports, a nightcap is the final game of a double header because it joins night and cap to mean the game that 'caps' or finishes the evening. So the sports meaning is the last match that ends the night's play.