Learn English – What does “snap your caps” mean

meaning

In Barry Manilow's version of "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" what does "snap your caps" mean?

Is it Elton? Is it Billy? Is it Sting perhaps?

Oh you’ll never ever get it, don’t snap your caps.

Best Answer

The phrase appears to date back to at least to 1940s America.

Take-off: American all-girl bands during World War Two by Tonya Bolden (2007):

SNAP YOUR CAP: Lose your cool.

The book of Negro folklore by Langston Hughes and Arna Wendell Bontemps (1958):

SNAP YOUR CAP : To become very angry. The dozens made him snap his cap.

American speech, Volume 20 (1945):

SNAP YOUR CAP. Become excited, flustered.

Finally, here it is in a 1977 poem by Maureen Owen:

      Don't crack up    Go koo koo    off the rocks
      get soaked     Don't loose your marbles      Twitch
      your tea     Be harried    License revoked.   Don't
      hold your breath    Lose precious sleep.    Snap 
      your cap    Pop your buttons    Blow a fuse    Short out!  
      Don't go under    Freak off the scene    Drown your hopes 
      & Pout    Don't let this old world get you down 
      and others get your goat    Don't sink your ship 
      Snap your cookie      Up a tree    Not wrapped too tight 
      they'll say.   Don't come unglued    Be in a stew
      Let a screw    come undone    Get sapped.   Don't go turkey
      Bees in your bonnet   Cook your goose      Have bats
      in your belfry    & worse    Don't go out of your gourd
      Loose your cool   Let it throw you     Be bowled over
      Come unstrung      Don't go batty    End up dotty
      weeping doorsteps midnight phone calls Friends who
      wish you'd sit up straight!
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