capstone - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Middle English capston; equivalent to cap +‎ stone.

capstone (plural capstones)

  1. Any of the stones making up the top layer of a wall; a coping stone.
  2. (figurative) A crowning achievement, culmination or finishing touch.
    • 1969, The Post-Apollo Space Program: Directions for the Future, NASA:
      Success of the Apollo program has been the capstone to a series of significant accomplishments for the United States in space in a broad spectrum of manned and unmanned exploration missions and in the application of space techniques for the benefit of man.

any of the stones making up the top layer of a wall — see also coping

a crowning achievement — see also seminar

capstone (third-person singular simple present capstones, present participle capstoning, simple past and past participle capstoned)

  1. (transitive) To complete as a crowning achievement; to top off.
    • 2012, Keith Brooke, Strange Divisions and Alien Territories, page 23:
      Capstoning a decade's worth of linked short stories, The Quiet War (2008) was a vivid and tense novel about a solar system sliding into conflict.
  2. (transitive, US, military, informal) To train in the Capstone Military Leadership Program.
    • 1981, Army Reserve Magazine, volumes 27-28, page 24:
      “Capstoned” units are now able to train and plan in peacetime with the command with which they will fight in wartime.