▪ I. cops, copse
(kɒps)
Also 5 copys.
[OE. cops, cosp = OS. cosp (in comb. litho-cospun dat. pl.).]
† 1. A shackle for any part of the body; a fetter (OE. fót-cops), manacle (hand-cops), or collar (sweor-cops), to secure a prisoner. Obs.
| a 700 Epinal Gloss. 765 In quo pedes vinctorum tenentur cosp [so Erf., Corpus]. c 825 Vesp. Ps. cxlix [cl]. 8 To ᵹebindanne cyningas heara in fot-cospum. c 888 K. ælfred Boeth. xxxviii. 1 And siððan slean on þa raccentan and on cospas. c 1000 Supp. ælfric's Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker 182/20 Anguina cops. a 1100 Voc. in Wr.-W. 336/37 Compes uel cippus fotcops. Bogia iuc oððe swurcops. Manice handcops. a 1200 Ibid. 552/15 Fotcops, sweorcops, hondcops. |
2. A hasp for fastening a door or gate.
The hasp is closed over a staple which is then padlocked.
| 14.. Medulla Gram (Cant. MS.) (in Promp. Parv. s.v. Hespe), Pesellum, a lytel lok of tre, a haspe, a cospe, a sclott [cf. Promp. Parv. Hespe of a doore, pessulum]. 1536 MS. Acc. St. John's Hosp., Canterb., Payd for ij copseys for a gatte iijd. [Still used, and well known to country ironmongers in the south of England.] |
† b. (See quot.) Obs.
| 1497 Churchw. Acc. Yatton (Somerset Record Soc.) 121 Payd to Antony for dressyng of the yron and a copys that beryth the lyȝht..iiij{supd}. |
3. A u-shaped iron, which, by means of a pin passing through the ends, can be fixed on the end of a pole or beam so as to provide an attachment for tackle, etc.; a clevis. Applied to various similar contrivances for analogous purposes: see the quots.
| 1797 Trans. Soc. Encouragem. Arts XV. 233 The copse, by which the cattle draw. 1863 Barnes Dorset Gloss., Cops, a connecting crook of a harrow. Ibid. s.v. Wey, The wey is fastened at its middle to the plough or harrow by a cops (an iron bow with a free joint). 1888 Elworthy W. Somerset Wd.-bk., Copse, in harness or plough-tackle, a U-shaped iron, having a pin through its ends, by which the foot-chain of a sull is attached to the bodkin; = Clevis. In breeching harness a copse on either side connects the breech-strap with the short breeching-chains..The bow of a watch is called a copse. |
4. A piece of wood (or iron) fixed on an oar, having a hole in it to turn on a thole-pin. Such oars are called on the south coast of England copse-oars.
| 1891 Correspt. at Weymouth, Where copse oars are used a single thole-pin is required. |
¶ See also cosp.
▪ II. † cops
= cock's as a deformation of God's.
| a 1693 Urquhart Rabelais iii. iv. 49 Cops body, I sink, I drown. Ibid. iii. xviii. 146 Copsody, that I do believe. |