set one's cap for

Idioms and Phrases

Pursue someone romantically, as in We all thought Anne had set her cap for Joe, but we were wrong . In the 1700s this term, which may have alluded to donning one's best headgear, was applied to members of either sex, but by the early 1800s it generally described a woman chasing a man. It is probably obsolescent.

Related Words

• cultivate
• pursue
• solicit