capital offense

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Also see: offense

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
capital1

▶noun

• 1 the most important city or town of a country or region, usually its seat of government and administrative centre.

  ■ a place particularly associated with a specified activity: the fashion capital of the world.

• 2 wealth owned by a person or organization or invested, lent, or borrowed.

  ■ the excess of a company's assets over its liabilities.

• 3 a capital letter.

▶adjective

• 1 (of an offence or charge) liable to the death penalty.

• 2 (of a letter of the alphabet) large in size and of the form used to begin sentences and names.

• 3 informal, dated excellent.

– phrases
make capital out of use to one's own advantage.
with a capital —— used for emphasis: she was ugly with a capital U.

– derivatives
capitally adverb.

– origin ME (as adj. in the sense ‘relating to the head or top’): via OFr. from L. capitalis, from caput ‘head’.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
capital2

▶noun Architecture the distinct, typically broader section at the head of a pillar or column.

– origin ME: from OFr. capitel, from late L. capitellum ‘little head’, dimin. of L. caput.