▪ I. coop, n.1
(kuːp)
Forms: 3–5 cupe, 4–7 coupe, 5–6 coope, 5–7 cowpe, 7 coup, 7– coop.
[mod.E. coop, in 15–17th c. cowpe, coupe, is app. identical with ME. cupe, coupe basket, pointing to an OE. *c{uacu}pe fem., an unrecorded collateral form of c{yacu}pe cask, bushel, basket; app. = Du. kuip, MDu. cûpe, EFris. kupe, MLG. kûpe:—OLG. *kûpa f. ‘cask’, for which OS. had côpa, MLG. kôpe, OHG. chôfa, chuofa, MHG. kuofe, mod.G. kufe f. ‘cask’. The German words are generally considered to be a. L. cūpa, in med.L. also cōpa ‘cask’; but if this be their origin, it is difficult to account for the umlaut in OE. c{yacu}pe, kipe.
When cupe, coupe appears in ME., it is a synonym of kype, kipe, ‘basket’; in sense 3 also coop and kipe are still synonymous. Sense 2 is not found in kipe, though a natural enough development of the sense ‘basket’.
The phonetic development c{uacu}pe, coupe, coop, is paralleled by st{uacu}pian, stoupe, stoop, and ON. dr{uacu}pa, droupe, droop, where also the sound (uː) is retained, instead of being, as usual, dipthongized to (aʊ) in mod.Eng., and the spelling is assimilated to that of words in oo from OE. ó, ME. ō.]
† 1. (ME. cupe, coupe, pl. -en.) A basket. Obs.
[From the ambiguity of ME. u, it is possible that in some of these u means ü = y, and that they are examples of kype, kipe; but the spelling coupe of the later text of Floriz must belong here.]
| a 1300 Floriz & Bl. 435 Cupen he let fulle of flures To strawen in þe maidenes bures..He let Floriz on þat on cupe go [Abbotsf. Club ed. c 1350, coupen, coupe]. c 1320 Cast. Love 1278 Of þe relef þat hem leuede bi-fore, Twelf cupe-ful weoren vp i-bore. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) I. 15 (Mätz.) Þe releef of þe twelf cupes [v.r. kipes or lepes.]. Ibid. IV. 359 Paule was i-lete a doun in a cupe [sportâ] ouer þe wal. |
2. A kind of basket placed over fowls when sitting or being fattened; a cage or pen of basketwork or the like for confining poultry, etc. See also hen-coop.
| 14.. False Fox in Rel. Antiq. I. 4 The fals fox camme unto oure cowpe, And there he made our gese to stowpe. 1530 Palsgr. 210/1 Coupe for capons, caige à chappons. c 1530 Pol. Rel. & L. Poems (1866) 36 Take iij Chekyns or .iiij...& put them in a coope to feede. 1577 Harrison England ii. xiv. (1877) i. 265 To be caged up as in a coope. 1616 Surfl. & Markh. Country Farme 72 They must be kept vnder a Cowpe with the Henne or Capon. 1697 C'tess D'Aunoy's Trav. (1706) 258 A great Coup, in which they feed poultry. 1740 Stack in Phil. Trans. XLI. 392, I took Four strong Pullets, which I shut up in Coops. 1829 E. Jesse Jrnl. Nat. 193 He has known it [the shrike] draw the weak young pheasants through the bars of the breeding coops. 1866 Rogers Agric. & Prices I. xvi. 339 Geese were either turned into stubble or fattened in coops. |
3. A wickerwork basket used in catching fish: also called kipe.
| 1469 Sc. Act Jas. III (1597) §37 Salmond, Girsilles and trowtes, quhilk ar destroyed be cowpes..nettes, prynes set in rivers, that hes course to the Sea. 1691 Ray N.C. Words 17 A Fish-coop is..a great hollow Vessel, made of Twigs, in which they take Fish upon Humber. 1786 Gilpin Observ. Pict. Beauty (1788) II. 133 At this place salmon coops are placed; where all the fish, which enter the Esk, are taken. 1869 Lonsdale Gloss., Coop, a hollow vessel made of twigs for taking eels. 1873 Act 36–37 Vict. c. 71 §17 Any fishing box, coop, apparatus, net, or mode of fishing..forming part of such weir. |
4. A protecting grating about a tree, etc.
| 1750 W. Ellis Mod. Husbandman VIII. 76 If a fence or coop was set about each pole. |
5. transf. and fig. (from 2). A narrow place of confinement; a cage or prison.
| 1579 Spenser Sheph. Cal. Oct. 72 Sunnebright honour pend in shamefull coupe. 1594 Carew Tasso (1881) 118 Armide appeared likewise with her troope, Where a burgage had beene their lodging coope. 1784 Cowper Task iii. 834 Such herds Of..vagrants, as make London..a crowded coop. 1847 Emerson Repr. Men, Montaigne Wks. (Bohn) I. 339 Why think to shut up all things in your narrow coop? |
6. a. slang. A prison. b. In U.S. Polit. slang: The place where electors were ‘cooped’.
| 1785 Sessions Papers Sept. 1111/2 He had been in coop for a week. 1866 Lond. Misc. 3 Mar. 58/3 (Farmer) A cove as has..smelt the insides of all the coops in the three kingdoms. 1877 J. Greenwood Dick Temple (Farmer), You say that you have been in the coop as many times as I have. 1889 Pall Mall G. 18 Feb. 6/2 They were made to vote the ticket of the party that controlled the ‘coop’. Our coop was in the rear of an engine-house on Calvert-street. 1963 Wodehouse Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves xxiv. 180, I accompanied Constable Oates to the village coop. |
▪ II. coop, n.2
var. of coup, a dung-cart.
▪ III. coop, n.3
[Etymol. obscure: cf. cop n.2 4.]
A small heap, as of manure.
| 1825–79 Jamieson Coop, a small heap, as a ‘coop of muck’. 1881 Gard. Chron. No. 411. 626 The raking of an adequate quantity of Oak and Chestnut leaves and carting them to the leaf-coop, with which to make up hotbeds, etc. |
▪ IV. coop, v.1
(kuːp)
Also 6–7 cope, 7 coope, coup(e.
[f. coop n.1]
1. trans. To put or confine (poultry, etc.) in a coop, pen, or narrow enclosure. Also with up.
| 1598 Drayton Heroic. Ep. xv. 20 Nor will with Crowes be coup'd within a Grove. 1791 Boswell Johnson an. 1728, The flesh of animals who feed excursively, is allowed to have a higher flavour than that of those who are cooped up. 1846 J. Baxter Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4) II. 223 As soon as it is perceived that the geese are desirous of laying, coop them up under their roof. 1890 Daily News 26 Nov. 5/6 The..pigs and poultry were cooped or tethered on the outskirts of the camp. |
2. transf. To confine (persons) within small space; to shut up within irksomely narrow limits; to cage, cabin.
In the Shakes. quots. the meaning is app. ‘To enclose for protection or defence’, in reference to one of the uses of a coop for poultry. This sense may also occur in other quotations.
| 1563–87 Foxe A. & M. (1596) 46/1 Their armie..was cooped and shut in within the streets. 1583 Stanyhurst æneis i. (Arb.) 19 Thee father almighty..Mewed vp theese reuelers coupt in strong dungeon hillish. 1593 Shakes. 3 Hen. VI, v. i. 109. 1595 ― John ii. i. 25 That white-fac'd shore, Whose foot spurnes backe the Oceans roaring tides, And coopes from other lands her Ilanders. 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage i. xvi. 73 They had coped him in a corner of his kingdome. 1718 Pope Iliad xviii. 334 What! coop whole armies in our walls again? 1812 Byron Ch. Har. ii. xxviii, Sailors..Cooped in their winged sea-girt citadel. |
| fig. 1876 J. Weiss Wit, Hum. & Shaks. iv. 136 He is hard to get fairly cooped in a corner. |
b. with up; also in, together.
| 1583 T. Stocker Civ. Warres Low-C. ii. 49 b, The Prince of Parma besieged the Citie of Mastright, and with suche force so straightly couped it vp. 1591 Horsey Trav. (Hakluyt Soc.) 204, I..beinge coped up and kept close as a prisoner. 1602 J. Clapham Hist. Eng. in Harl. Misc. (Malh.) II. 435 When he considered how he was couped in. 1667 Dryden Maiden Queen v. i, A strait place, where they are all coupt up. 1760 Wesley Wks. (1872) III. 12, I was obliged once more to coop myself up in the Room. 1836 Thirlwall Greece III. xx. 155 Suddenly facing about, to coop him in, and capture the whole squadron. 1864 Skeat tr. Uhland's Poems 374 I've caught you cooped together, much honoured brotherhood! 1870 Emerson Soc. & Solit. Wks. (Bohn) III. 4 Coop up most men, and you undo them. |
c. U.S. Polit. slang. (See quots.)
| 1848–60 Bartlett Dict. Amer., Cooping of Voters, collecting and confining them, several days previous to an election, in a house or on a vessel hired for the purpose. Here they are treated with good living and liquors, and at a proper day are taken to the polls, and voted, as it is called, for the party. 1889 in Pall Mall G. 18 Feb. 6/2 Four of us, including [E. A.] Poe..were nabbed by a gang of men who were on the look out for voters to ‘coop’. |
† 3. fig. Of persons. Obs.
| 1641 Milton Animadv. (1851) 235 The one is ever coopt up at his empty speculations. 1690 Locke Hum. Und. iv. xx. §4 They are cooped in close, by the Laws of their Countries. 1780 Burke Sp. at Bristol Wks. 1842 I. 270 They feel themselves in a state of thraldom, they imagine that their souls are cooped and cabined in. |
b. Of action, feeling, etc.
| 1642 Rogers Naaman 198 That we cope all our Sabbath devotion, yea all our religion within the Church walls. 1643 Case of Affairs 5 Which yet did not so much coop up or curbe the regall power from any due worke or office. a 1764 Lloyd Poet. Wks. (1774) II. 25 What is his verse, but cooping sense Within an arbitrary fence. 1846 Prescott Ferd. & Is. II. xviii. 165 The papal line of demarcation cooped up their enterprises within too narrow limits. |
† 4. To confine (a thing) within a containing vessel or narrow limits. Usually with up. Obs.
| 1646 Hammond Serm. Wks. 1684 IV. 677 The water is easily cooped up in a glass or bucket. 1748 Anson Voy. ii. xi. 255 The place is so cooped up with mountains, that it is scarcely possible to escape out of it. 1782 Gilpin Wye (1798) 143 The river is cooped between two high hills. |
5. To surround with a protecting grating or coop.
| 1631 Weever Anc. Fun. Mon. 379 Grated, or coped about with iron. Ibid. 388 One Tombe in the body of the Church coped with iron. 1750 W. Ellis Mod. Husbandman VIII. 74 The great expence of cooping and fencing each tree. |
▪ V. † coop, v.2 Obs. or dial. rare.
[A back-formation on cooper n.1]
trans. ‘To hoop, to bind with hoops’ (Jamieson); = cooper v.
| 16.. Holland in Webster (1864), Shaken tubs..be new cooped. 17.. in Jacobite Relics (1821) II. 54 There was a cooper..He coopit a coggie for our gudwifie, And heigho ! but he coopit it braw. |
▪ VI. coop, int.
(kʊp)
Also cop, cup.
[app. contraction of co'up = come up: cf. dup = do up.]
1. A call for domestic animals.
| a 1825 Forby Voc. East Anglia, Coop, a common word of invitation to domestic poultry..to come..to peck up the food thrown down for them. It is, perhaps, an abbreviation of the words come up. 1873 Hale Level Best, In front of the barn, from which we had already heard shouts of ‘Coop! Coop!’ 1883 Hampshire Gloss., Coop, a word used in calling horses; particularly when in the field they are enticed by a sieve of oats to be caught. 1888 Sheffield Gloss., Coop, a call for cows. |
2. coop or coop and seek (U.S.): the game of ‘hide and seek’.
Coop is the call of the hider when he is ready.
| 1884 J. N. Tarbox in Chicago Advance, And then we play at coop and seek. |
▪ VII. coop, coope
obs. ff. cup, cope.