cope

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See also: copé, copë, and Cope

English

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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From Middle English coupen, from Old French couper (“to strike, to cut”).

Verb

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cope (third-person singular simple present copes, present participle coping, simple past and past participle coped)

  1. (intransitive) To deal effectively with something, especially if difficult.
    Synonyms: contend, hold it together
    Antonym: (vulgar) lose one's shit
    • 2012 May 5, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool”, in BBC Sport‎[1]:
      Chelsea were coping comfortably as Liverpool left Luis Suarez too isolated. Steven Gerrard was also being forced to drop too deep to offer support to the beleaguered Jay Spearing and Jordan Henderson rather than add attacking potency alongside the Uruguayan.
    • 2017 May 10, Hannah Ellis-Petersen, quoting Phyllida Barlow, “Phyllida Barlow: I couldn't have coped if fame had come 20 years ago”, in The Guardian‎[2], →ISSN:
      Phyllida Barlow, the sculptor representing the UK at the Venice Biennale, has said that while it may have taken the art world decades to pay attention to her work, the timing of her recognition was perfect, adding: “20 years ago, I wouldn’t have coped.”
    • 2022 July 18, Jamie Grierson, “From transport to zoos: how UK services coped in the sweltering heat”, in The Guardian‎[3], →ISSN:
      From transport to zoos: how UK services coped in the sweltering heat [title]
  2. To cut and form a mitred joint in wood or metal.
  3. (falconry) To clip the beak or talons of a bird.
    • 1856, John Henry Walsh, Manual of British Rural Sports:
      the beak and talons should be closely coped
Conjugation
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Conjugation of cope
infinitive (to) cope
present tense past tense
1st-person singular cope coped
2nd-person singular cope, copest† coped, copedst†
3rd-person singular copes, copeth† coped
plural cope
subjunctive cope coped
imperative cope —
participles coping coped

†Archaic or obsolete.

Derived terms
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Translations
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Noun

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cope (plural copes)

  1. (slang) A coping mechanism or self-delusion one clings to in order to endure a hopeless situation.
    • 2019, Talia Lavin, Culture Warlords: My Journey Into the Dark Web of White Supremacy, unnumbered page:
      There was some public grousing about the number of white supremacists attempting to recruit, however; some incels argued that white supremacy was just another "cope"–just another self-deluding attempt to cover over the grim truth of the blackpill.
    • 2020, anonymous, quoted in Jacob Conley, "Efficacy, Nihilism, and Toxic Masculinity Online: Digital Misogyny in the Incel Subculture", thesis submitted to The Ohio State University, page 18:
      My only 2 copes for the past 3 years have been food & the internet/surfing. Both of these copes have only hurt me further as I have addictions to both sugar and the internet now and have isolated myself further and further into the oblivion.
    • 2020, Brian Whitney, The "Supreme Gentleman" Killer: The True Story of an Incel Mass Murderer, unnumbered page:
      Just as it sounds, a Gymcel is an incel who goes to the gym a lot, which in their mind is a cope.
    • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:cope.
Derived terms
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Interjection

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cope

  1. (derogatory) Expression of spite towards someone who suffered a major setback.
    "The other guy cheated, I had no chance!" "Cope."

Etymology 2

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From Middle English cope, from Medieval Latin cāpa (“cape”) Doublet of cap, cape, and chape.

Noun

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cope (plural copes)

Cope worn by a bishop
  1. (liturgy) A long, loose cloak worn by a priest, deacon, or bishop when presiding over a ceremony other than the Mass.
    Coordinate terms: mantle, mantum
    • 1681, Gilbert Burnet, “Book II. The Life and Reign of Queen Mary.”, in The History of the Reformation of the Church of England. The Second Part, […], London: […] T[homas] H[odgkin] for Richard Chiswell, […], →OCLC, page 300:
      […] there went firſt 160 Prieſts, all in their Copes, eight Biſhops next, […]
    • 1891, Oscar Wilde, chapter XI, in The Picture of Dorian Gray, London, New York, N.Y., Melbourne, Vic.: Ward Lock & Co., →OCLC:
      He possessed a gorgeous cope of crimson silk and gold-thread damask, figured with a repeating pattern of golden pomegranates set in six-petalled formal blossoms, beyond which on either side was the pine-apple device wrought in seed-pearls.
  2. Any covering such as a canopy or a mantle.
  3. (literary) The vault or canopy of the skies, heavens etc.
  4. (construction) A covering piece on top of a wall exposed to the weather, usually made of metal, masonry, or stone, and sloped to carry off water.
  6. (foundry) The top part of a sand casting mold.[1]
    Coordinate term: drag
  7. An ancient tribute due to the lord of the soil, out of the lead mines in Derbyshire, England.
Derived terms
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Translations
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Verb

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cope (third-person singular simple present copes, present participle coping, simple past and past participle coped)

  1. (transitive) To cover (a joint or structure) with coping.
  2. (intransitive) To form a cope or arch; to arch or bend; to bow.
    • 1603, Plutarch, “The Second Booke of the Symposiaques. The Fourth Question. Whether Wrestling were of All the Exercises and Games of Prise, Most Ancient or No?”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Philosophie, Commonlie Called, The Morals […], London: […] Arnold Hatfield, →OCLC, page 673:
      [W]e ſee that wreſtlers onely doe claſpe about, and imbrace one another with their armes; and the moſt part of their ſtriving one againſt another, whether it be performed by taking hold either directly or indirectly, by tripping, by coping and tugging, doe all bring them together, and enterlace them; […]
Translations
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Etymology 3

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From Middle English copen, borrowed from Middle Dutch copen. Cognate with Dutch kopen, German kaufen.

Verb

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cope (third-person singular simple present copes, present participle coping, simple past and past participle coped)

  1. (obsolete) To bargain for; to buy.
  2. (obsolete) To exchange or barter.
  3. (obsolete) To make return for; to requite; to repay.
  4. (obsolete) To match oneself against; to meet; to encounter.
    • c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
      I love to cope him in these sullen fits.
    • c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:
      They say he yesterday coped Hector in the battle, and struck him down.
    • a. 1682, Nathaniel Whiting, “The Pleasing History of Albino and Bellama”, in George Saintsbury, editor, Minor Poets of the Caroline Period‎[4], volume III, published 1921:
      Says, ‘Mistress, do you travel to be coped? / Give me my fee: for sure, a plump-cheeked lass / Shall not the porter's lodge unkissèd pass.’
    • 1708, John Philips, Cyder:
      Host coped with host, dire was the din of war.
  5. (obsolete) To encounter; to meet; to have to do with.
Derived terms
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References

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  1. ^ 1880, Leo de Colange, The American Dictionary of Commerce […]

Etymology 4

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Unknown

Verb

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cope (third-person singular simple present copes, present participle coping, simple past and past participle coped)

  1. (obsolete, dialect) To tie or sew up the mouth of a ferret used for hunting rabbits.
    • 1631, Richard Brathwaite, Whimzies:
      His nimble ferrets must now become pioners for their master who coupes them, lest they should grow too fat to endure labour.
    • 1825, Robert Forby, The Vocabulary of East-Anglia:
      The use of this word is confined to warreners, who are said to 'cope' their ferrets, when they sew or tie up their mouths, to prevent them from biting rabbits, when they are used to drive them from their holes.
  2. (obsolete, figuratively) To silence or prevent from speaking.
    • 1601, John Deacon, John Walker, Dialogicall Discourses of Spirits and Divels:
      Well sir? how triflingly soeuer you trauers the matter, these my Philosophicall proceedings (for any thing hitherto heard) might fullie suffice to put your fantasticall fooleries to a perpetuall non-sute: were you not like to the rauenous Ferret, which rendeth in peeces whatsoeuer poore Rabbet doth come in her reach. And therefore it shall not be amisse to cope vp your lips a little, by taking foorthwith so strict a course as you shall neuer be able to contradict with all your skill: which may in this sort be verie fitly effected.
    • 1621, Thomas Dekker, Match Me in London:
      And tell me Signior, why when you eate our good cheare i'th City, haue you handſome wide chops, but meeting vs at Court, none; your gumme's glew'd vp, your lips coap'd like a Ferret, not ſo much as the corner of a Cuſtard; if a cold cup, and a dry cheate loaf 'tis well.
    • 1672, John Eachard, Mr. Hobbs's state of nature considered in a dialogue between Philautus and Timothy:
      That is; because Roger has a vocal instrument between his chin and his nose, called a mouth, and being not muzled, gagged or cop'd; but having a free power, faculty or Page 127 May to open it, and order it as he think fit; therefore he May stretch it out as wide as he please, and swear quite cross the Island, that he'l have the whole, or at least half:

Anagrams

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Friulian

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Etymology

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From Late Latin cuppa, from Latin cūpa.

Noun

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cope f (plural copes)

  1. goblet
  2. bowl
  3. cup

Middle English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From earlier cape, from Latin cāpa; possibly through an Old English *cāpe.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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cope (plural copes)

  1. A cape or cloak; a loose-fitting outer layer.
  2. A cope; a clerical cape, especially that worn by monastics.
  3. (figuratively) A cover or vault.

Descendants

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  • English: cope
  • Scots: caip, cape, cap

References

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Old French

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Late Latin cuppa, from Latin cūpa.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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cope oblique singular, f (oblique plural copes, nominative singular cope, nominative plural copes)

  1. cup (vessel from which liquid is drunk)

Descendants

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Spanish

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Verb

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cope

  1. inflection of copar:
    1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
    2. third-person singular imperative
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