Definition
To choose a man as a potential husband (for a girl).
To choose something as a goal.
Origins
Probably a calque of French mettre le cap sur (“to set a course for”).
In Context
- "To hear her rant, one would have supposed, who had not seen him, that her lank-haired, grimly partner, was the prettiest youth in the county of Dublin, and that all the comely lasses in Chapelizod and the country round were sighing and setting caps at him […]"
- "Patrick O'Brian, "HMS Surprise". How he has escaped marriage until now I cannot tell: the number of caps set in his direction would furnish a warehouse."