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caper

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cut capers

Also, cut a caper. Frolic or romp, as in The children cut capers in the pile of raked leaves. The noun caper comes from the Latin for "goat," and the allusion is to act in the manner of a young goat clumsily frolicking about. The expression was first recorded in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night (1:3): "Faith, I can cut a caper."

See also: caper, cut

caper

(ˈkepɚ)

1. n. any stunt or event; a trick or a scam. That little caper the kids did with the statue from the town square was a dandy.

2. n. a criminal job: theft, kidnapping, blackmail, etc. (Underworld.) The black and whites pulled up right in the middle of the caper.