"thinking cap" meaning in All languages combined

See thinking cap on Wiktionary

Noun [English]

IPA: /ˈθɪŋkɪŋ ˌkæp/ [General-American, Received-Pronunciation] Forms: thinking caps [plural]
Etymology: Probably by analogy with considering cap, which is attested from the early 17th century. Etymology templates: {{m|en|considering cap}} considering cap, {{nb...|Shewing Their Lives, Humours and Behaviours, with Their Want of Wit in Their Shew of Wisdome, not so Strange as True: Written by One, Seeming to have His Mothers Witte, when Some say He is Fild with His Fathers Fopperie, and Hopes He Lives Not without Companie}} […], {{nb...|Simply of Themselves without Compound. 􂀿...􂁀 London: Printed by T. E. for Iohn Deane, 1608.}} […], {{nb...|With an Introduction and Notes.}} […] Head templates: {{en-noun}} thinking cap (plural thinking caps)
  1. (humorous) A metaphorical piece of headgear supposedly worn by a person to assist them in thinking about how to solve a problem. Tags: humorous Categories (topical): Headwear, Thinking Synonyms: thinking-cap Translations (metaphorical piece of headgear for solving a problem): tænkehat [common-gender] (Danish), mietintämyssy (Finnish), pensatoio [masculine] (Italian), mislilačka kapa [feminine] (Serbo-Croatian), gorra de pensar [feminine] (Spanish), tankehatt [common-gender] (Swedish), tänkarhatt [common-gender] (Swedish)

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for thinking cap meaning in All languages combined (8.2kB)

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          "text": "Now suppose they put on their \"thinking-caps\" a moment or two, and consider what is going on in the great world around them. [...] Before you pull off your \"thinking-cap\" cast a look around your own country—free, prosperous, powerful, independent; yet how full of wickedness, and how unmindful of its obligation to the God of nations!",
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          "text": "The story you shall have, then, just as well as I can tell it: and you must put on your thinking-caps, so as to remember all you can of it; and be sure to ask questions about what you don't understand.",
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        {
          "ref": "1873 October 11, “Jessie’s Token of Love”, in The Temperance Record: The Organ of the National Temperance League, number 914, London: Published for the National Temperance League by William Tweedie, […], →OCLC, page 485, column 2",
          "text": "\"Costly gifts, my dear child, are not always acceptable as a proof of love. And if you put on your thinking cap, perhaps you will find that you, too, can take an acceptable keepsake to your teacher.\" / \"Why, I'm sure I've nothing worth taking to her, mamma. And all the thinking caps in the world can't help me to an idea.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
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          "ref": "1916, Sara H. Merrill, “The Hero Turtle”, in John Martin [pseudonym; Morgan van Roorbach Shepard], editor, John Martin’s Annual: A Jolly Big Book for Little Folks, Garden City, N.Y.: Published by John Martin’s House Inc. […] for Platt & Peck Co., →OCLC",
          "text": "As time passed the Great Spirit grew fonder and fonder of his good-natured friend, and was grieved to see him suffer for the lack of a full dinner pot and stomach, so the Great Spirit put on his thinking-cap and learned a way to help Mr. Turtle. \"The old fellow needs a wife!\" said the Great Spirit taking off his thinking-cap.",
          "type": "quotation"
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        {
          "ref": "1989 February 23, Molly Burney (witness), Hearing on the Reauthorization of VISTA: Hearing before the Subcommittee on Select Education of the Committee on Education and Labor, House of Representatives, One Hundred First Congress, First Session: […] (serial no. 101-5), Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 60",
          "text": "There are two of us with children and just think now, if two of us with children can do this, just think what the young people who don't have children, coming out of school, can do if they put their thinking caps on and just volunteered and sat down and talked to find out what they can do. I know there are a lot of them out there can do it.",
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          "text": "So Reuben [Mattus] put on his thinking cap and came up with the name Häagen-Dazs for his new line of premium, high-fat ice cream. Although it sports an umlaut and sounds Scandinavian, the name Häagen-Dazs is pure nonsense—it doesn't actually mean anything in any known language.",
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          "ref": "2013, James A. Bellanca, “Toward More Systematic Searches”, in The Focus Factor: 8 Essential Twenty-first Century Thinking Skills for Deeper Student Learning, New York, N.Y.: Teachers College Press, page 70",
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        "(humorous) A metaphorical piece of headgear supposedly worn by a person to assist them in thinking about how to solve a problem."
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          "code": "da",
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          "sense": "metaphorical piece of headgear for solving a problem",
          "tags": [
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          "tags": [
            "masculine"
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          "tags": [
            "feminine"
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        },
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          "sense": "metaphorical piece of headgear for solving a problem",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "gorra de pensar"
        },
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          "sense": "metaphorical piece of headgear for solving a problem",
          "tags": [
            "common-gender"
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        }
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      "tags": [
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    }
  ],
  "word": "thinking cap"
}
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        "1": "Shewing Their Lives, Humours and Behaviours, with Their Want of Wit in Their Shew of Wisdome, not so Strange as True: Written by One, Seeming to have His Mothers Witte, when Some say He is Fild with His Fathers Fopperie, and Hopes He Lives Not without Companie"
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          "type": "example"
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          "text": "Now suppose they put on their \"thinking-caps\" a moment or two, and consider what is going on in the great world around them. [...] Before you pull off your \"thinking-cap\" cast a look around your own country—free, prosperous, powerful, independent; yet how full of wickedness, and how unmindful of its obligation to the God of nations!",
          "type": "quotation"
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          "ref": "1862 April, “Putting on the Thinking Caps”, in The Student and Schoolmate, and Forrester’s Boys and Girls Magazine, volume XL, number IV, Boston, Mass.: Galen James and Company, […], →OCLC, page 109",
          "text": "Come children, gather around the desk, and we will have a chat for half an hour. We want you to put on your thinking caps, and show what manner of boys and girls you are.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
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          "ref": "1864, William M. Thayer, “Introduction”, in A Child’s History of the Rebellion, from the Bombardment of Fort Sumter to the Capture of Roanoke Island, Boston, Mass.: Walker, Wise, and Company, […], →OCLC, page 24",
          "text": "The story you shall have, then, just as well as I can tell it: and you must put on your thinking-caps, so as to remember all you can of it; and be sure to ask questions about what you don't understand.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
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          "ref": "1873 October 11, “Jessie’s Token of Love”, in The Temperance Record: The Organ of the National Temperance League, number 914, London: Published for the National Temperance League by William Tweedie, […], →OCLC, page 485, column 2",
          "text": "\"Costly gifts, my dear child, are not always acceptable as a proof of love. And if you put on your thinking cap, perhaps you will find that you, too, can take an acceptable keepsake to your teacher.\" / \"Why, I'm sure I've nothing worth taking to her, mamma. And all the thinking caps in the world can't help me to an idea.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
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        {
          "ref": "1916, Sara H. Merrill, “The Hero Turtle”, in John Martin [pseudonym; Morgan van Roorbach Shepard], editor, John Martin’s Annual: A Jolly Big Book for Little Folks, Garden City, N.Y.: Published by John Martin’s House Inc. […] for Platt & Peck Co., →OCLC",
          "text": "As time passed the Great Spirit grew fonder and fonder of his good-natured friend, and was grieved to see him suffer for the lack of a full dinner pot and stomach, so the Great Spirit put on his thinking-cap and learned a way to help Mr. Turtle. \"The old fellow needs a wife!\" said the Great Spirit taking off his thinking-cap.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1989 February 23, Molly Burney (witness), Hearing on the Reauthorization of VISTA: Hearing before the Subcommittee on Select Education of the Committee on Education and Labor, House of Representatives, One Hundred First Congress, First Session: […] (serial no. 101-5), Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 60",
          "text": "There are two of us with children and just think now, if two of us with children can do this, just think what the young people who don't have children, coming out of school, can do if they put their thinking caps on and just volunteered and sat down and talked to find out what they can do. I know there are a lot of them out there can do it.",
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          "text": "So Reuben [Mattus] put on his thinking cap and came up with the name Häagen-Dazs for his new line of premium, high-fat ice cream. Although it sports an umlaut and sounds Scandinavian, the name Häagen-Dazs is pure nonsense—it doesn't actually mean anything in any known language.",
          "type": "quotation"
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          "ref": "2013, James A. Bellanca, “Toward More Systematic Searches”, in The Focus Factor: 8 Essential Twenty-first Century Thinking Skills for Deeper Student Learning, New York, N.Y.: Teachers College Press, page 70",
          "text": "[I]f he stopped, took a deep breath, and put on a thinking cap to make a plan, he would have a greater chance of finding the object and finding it sooner.",
          "type": "quotation"
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        "(humorous) A metaphorical piece of headgear supposedly worn by a person to assist them in thinking about how to solve a problem."
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      "word": "thinking-cap"
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    {
      "code": "da",
      "lang": "Danish",
      "sense": "metaphorical piece of headgear for solving a problem",
      "tags": [
        "common-gender"
      ],
      "word": "tænkehat"
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    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "metaphorical piece of headgear for solving a problem",
      "word": "mietintämyssy"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "metaphorical piece of headgear for solving a problem",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "pensatoio"
    },
    {
      "code": "sh",
      "lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
      "sense": "metaphorical piece of headgear for solving a problem",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "mislilačka kapa"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "metaphorical piece of headgear for solving a problem",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "gorra de pensar"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "metaphorical piece of headgear for solving a problem",
      "tags": [
        "common-gender"
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    },
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      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "metaphorical piece of headgear for solving a problem",
      "tags": [
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      "word": "tänkarhatt"
    }
  ],
  "word": "thinking cap"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-12 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (ae36afe and 304864d). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.