caper

noun

1. A playful leap or jump.
2. A jump while dancing.
3. A prank or practical joke.
4. (plural-normally)Playful behaviour.
5. (figuratively)A crime, especially an elaborate heist, or a narrative about such a crime.

   “His caper had failed to find a comic resolution. Instead, there had been a genre switch, and the madcap adventure had turned serious. Or had this bleakness underlain the caper from the start?”

   “The elusive 87-year-old author’s new book is a noir caper set during the big band era following a detective in search of a cheese heiress[.]”

6. The pungent grayish green flower bud of the European and Oriental caper (Capparis spinosa), which is pickled and eaten.
7. A plant of the genus Capparis.
8. A vessel formerly used by the Dutch; privateer.
9. (Scotland)The capercaillie.

verb

1. To leap or jump about in a sprightly or playful manner.

   “He capered before them down towards the fortyfoot hole, fluttering his winglike hands, leaping nimbly, Mercury’s hat quivering in the fresh wind that bore back to them his brief birdsweet cries.”

2. To jump as part of a dance.
3. To engage in playful behaviour.