Figuratively A crime, especially an elaborate heist, or a narrative about such a crime.
His caper had failed to find a comic resolution. Instead, there had been a genre switch, and the madcap adventure had turned serious. Or had this bleakness underlain the caper from the start?2022, Jennifer Egan, “i, the Protagonist”, in The Candy House:
The elusive 87-year-old author’s new book is a noir caper set during the big band era following a detective in search of a cheese heiress[.]2025 April 9, Lucy Knight, “Thomas Pynchon announces Shadow Ticket, his first novel in more than a decade”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
To leap or jump about in a sprightly or playful manner.
He capered before them down towards the fortyfoot hole, fluttering his winglike hands, leaping nimbly, Mercury’s hat quivering in the fresh wind that bore back to them his brief birdsweet cries.1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 1]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC: