† ˈcoppling, copling, ppl. a. Obs.
[Related to copple n. 2, and coppled; but in senses 2 and 3 app. influenced by cockling, toppling.]
1. Swelling upwards to a summit.
| 1670 H. Stubbe The Plus Ultra 144 It rose with an unequal intumescence, copling, like a loaf in the midst. 1688 in Somers Tracts Ser. i. II. 305 A few Foreigners of no Quality were only to keep the Secret of what her Majesty was to make the copling Belly. 1694 Narborough, etc. Voy. i. 23 A small rocky Island, copling up like a Haycock. Ibid. 42 Large Hills, and some round copling tops. Ibid. 80 Two peaked copling Rocks. 1745 P. Thomas Jrnl. Anson's Voy. 18 The Country about it is pretty much on the Level, except a few copling Hillocks to the Northward. |
2. Of the sea: Surging up into short irregular waves, tumbling; = cockling ppl. a. 2.
| 1667 H. Stubbe in Phil. Trans. II. 497 The waves..are short, and make a Copling Sea in the Bay of Biscay. |
3. Of stones, etc.: Unsteady, toppling; = cockling ppl. a. 3.
| a 1825 Forby, Coppling, adv., unsteady, in danger of falling. ‘It stands coppling, as if it stood upon its head’. |