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DUTCH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

kappen.

to chop, as with an axe

6 characters2 syllables approx.Nederlands language

Meaning & usage

verb
  1. to chop, as with an axe

    transitive
  2. to cut down, fell (e.g. a tree)

    transitive
  3. (in kappen op ...) to criticize

    figuratively · intransitive
  4. to cease, give up, stop

    colloquial · intransitive
  5. to talk; notably to plead

    intransitive · slang
  6. to talk; notably to speak (a) slang

    slang · transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle Dutch cappen. Further origin unsettled. Apparently related to German Low German kappen (“to clip, cut”), German kappen (“to clip, cut”), English chap and chop; thus it would also be distantly related to tjappen. The slang sense may have a distinct (unknown) etymology.

verb
  1. to fit with a hairstyle or headdress to cut (someone's) hair and model it

    transitive
  2. to fit with a hairstyle or headdress to dress (someone) with a bonnet, hood, cap

    transitive
  3. to cover (something) with a (heavy) hood, casing etc.

    transitive
  4. to trick (someone), play a prank on

    figuratively · transitive
Where this word comes from

From kap (“bonnet, hood, cap”) + -en. Women used to wear bonnets and caps, but these often left part of the hair uncovered; therefore kappen came to be used of the styling of head and hair in general, and was soon also generalized to males. The modern use specifically for cutting hair must have developed in part through association with etymology 1 above.

verb
  1. to have offspring, especially piglets

    transitive
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.