capuchin Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a hooded cloak for women
  2. noun monkey of Central America and South America having thick hair on the head that resembles a monk's cowl
    ringtail; Cebus capucinus.

WordNet

Cap`u*chin" noun
Etymology
F. capucin a monk who wears a cowl, fr. It. cappuccio hood. See Capoch.
Definitions
  1. (Eccl.) A Franciscan monk of the austere branch established in 1526 by Matteo di Baschi, distinguished by wearing the long pointed cowl or capoch of St. Francis.
    A bare-footed and long-bearded capuchin. Sir W. Scott.
  2. A garment for women, consisting of a cloak and hood, resembling, or supposed to resemble, that of capuchin monks.
  3. (Zoöl.) (a) A long-tailed South American monkey (Cabus capucinus), having the forehead naked and wrinkled, with the hair on the crown reflexed and resembling a monk's cowl, the rest being of a grayish white; -- called also capucine monkey, weeper, sajou, sapajou, and sai. (b) Other species of Cabus, as C. fatuellus (the brown or horned capucine.), C. albifrons (the cararara), and C. apella. (c) A variety of the domestic pigeon having a hoodlike tuft of feathers on the head and sides of the neck.

Webster 1913