nightcap

Etymology

night + cap

noun

1. A warm cloth cap worn while sleeping, often with pajamas, being common attire in northern Europe before effective home heating became widespread.
   Winston wore a nightcap to stave off the cold.
2. A beverage drunk before bed that is usually alcoholic.
   I'll make myself a nightcap of whisky and lemon before heading to bed.
3. (by extension, figurative) Something that a person reads or listens to before bed.
   […] and as a nightcap I happened to pick the copy of Plato […] 1920, Granville Stanley Hall, Recreations of a Psychologist
4. (US, sports, baseball) The final match of a sporting contest, especially the second game of a baseball doubleheader.
5. (historical) A cap drawn over the face of the condemned person before they are hanged.

verb

1. (intransitive) To drink an alcoholic beverage shortly before retiring to bed.
   Even better than breakfast, though, is nightcapping at the Waffle House . Nightcapping happens after the bars close, but before the southern sunrise: the hours when their jukeboxes play “Freebird” on a continual loop, […] 2010, Mark Decarlo, Fork on the Road: 400 Cities/One Stomach, page 229
   We nightcapped at the Four Seasons Hotel George V, on the most extravagant cocktails I'd ever purchased in life. 2020, Mitchell Jackson, Survival Math: Notes on an All-American Family, page 143