cope

Less common meanings

4. 4
   wall topnouncountable

   A covering piece set on top of a weather-exposed wall, usually of metal, masonry, or stone, and sloped to carry off water.

   Like the flashing along a roof's edge that channels water away from what's underneath.

   A metal cope protected the parapet from years of driving rain.

   Masons replaced the cracked copes that had let water seep into the wall.

   Similarcapstone, cap

   Note

   Builders care most about the slope. The capping on a freestanding or parapet wall is weathered to a single or double fall so that rain runs clear of the wall face rather than soaking into it. The finished capping is also called coping, and laying it is its matching verb. Stone and masonry are usual, but a metal cope does the same job. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 5 facts

   • Wall coping can slope in one direction or in two directions. en.wikipedia.org
   • Coping protects freestanding and parapet walls by shedding rainwater clear of the wall below. brick.org.uk
   • The protective top layer of a wall is called coping. en.wiktionary.org
   • The corresponding verb cope means to cover a structure with coping. en.wiktionary.org
   • Stone, masonry and metal are usual materials for a cope. en.wiktionary.org
5. 5
   priest's cloaknouncountable

   A full-length, loosely fitting cloak that a priest, deacon, or bishop wears to preside at services other than the Mass.

   Like the ceremonial robes a judge or graduate wears only on formal occasions.

   The priest fastened his cope before leading the evening service.

   Two deacons in matching copes flanked the altar during Vespers.

   Similarcloak, mantle

   Note

   A vestment word from Medieval Latin cāpa, "cape." That makes it a doublet of cap, cape and chape, one Latin word that entered English several times. The cope is a semicircular mantle, open at the front and fastened across the chest. Gilbert Burnet counts 160 priests "all in their Copes," and in Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray Dorian owns one of crimson silk and gold-thread damask. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 7 facts

   • The vestment word derives from Medieval Latin cāpa, meaning cape. en.wiktionary.org
   • Cope, cap, cape and chape are doublets deriving through different routes from the same Latin word. en.wiktionary.org
   • A cope is semicircular. metmuseum.org
   • A cope opens at the front and fastens across the chest. en.wikipedia.org
   • Gilbert Burnet describes 160 priests and uses the exact words 'all in their Copes'. en.wiktionary.org
   • Oscar Wilde wrote The Picture of Dorian Gray. gutenberg.org
   • In the novel, Dorian possesses a cope of crimson silk and gold-thread damask. gutenberg.org
6. 6
   cap a wallverbtransitive

   To cover a wall, joint, or structure with a protective capping that sheds water away from the surface below.

   The contractor coped the boundary wall with precast slabs.

   They cope the new walls as soon as the mortar sets.

   Similarcap, top

7. 7
   cut a jointverbtransitive

   To shape the end of a molding or other piece to match the profile of the piece it meets, giving a tight joint, usually at an inside corner in place of a miter.

   Skilled finishers cope the joint so the two pieces meet without a visible gap.

   The carpenter coped the baseboard so it fit tightly in the inside corner.

   Note

   A woodworker's sense, and the one that keeps the Old French "cut" closest to the surface. The end of a molding or workpiece is cut to the angle and profile its neighbor needs, so the two meet at a corner without an open seam. Keep it apart from the mason's capping verb: a coped joint has been cut, but a coped wall has been covered. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

   • The woodworking verb belongs to the etymology traced through Middle English to Old French coper/couper, meaning ‘to strike, to cut’. en.wiktionary.org
   • Coping shapes a molding’s end to fit the adjoining piece’s contours closely. en.wikipedia.org
   • Coping a wall means covering its top, distinct from cutting a coped joint. en.wikipedia.org
8. 8
   verbrareintransitive

   To curve or bend into an arch; to bow.

   Similararch, bow, bend, curve

   Oppositestraighten

   Note

   A verb made from the noun. The vestment and the vault of the sky both arch, and to cope in this sense is to take that shape, bending or bowing over. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

   • The arching verb derives from the noun cope, rather than the Old French cutting verb. en.wiktionary.org
   • The vestment has a curved form. gutenberg.org
9. 9
   verbobsolete

   To meet, encounter, or have dealings with someone, especially as an opponent in a contest.

   I love to cope him in these sullen fits.

   c. 1598, William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”

   Host coped with host, dire was the din of war.

   1708, John Philips, Cyder

   Note

   Shakespeare uses it with a direct object for meeting someone face to face. In As You Like It the Duke loves "to cope him in these sullen fits," meaning to engage the gloomy Jaques in talk, while in Troilus and Cressida a warrior "coped Hector in the battle." By John Philips's Cyder (1708) it takes with: "Host coped with host." The encounter may be a conversation or a fight, but it never means managing a difficulty.

10. 10
    verbobsoletefiguratively

    To silence someone, or prevent them from speaking out.

    Note

    The muzzled ferret turned into a figure of speech. Thomas Dekker's Match Me in London (1631) makes the link plain with "your lips coap'd like a Ferret." John Eachard's Mr. Hobbs's State of Nature Considered (1672) puts cop'd beside muzzled and gagged. Source

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 5 facts

    • The ferret-muzzling sense was applied figuratively to human speech. archive.org
    • Thomas Dekker wrote Match Me in London, first published in 1631. emed.folger.edu
    • The play contains the exact quoted words. archive.org
    • John Eachard wrote Mr. Hobbs's State of Nature Considered, first published in 1672. nul.nagoya-u.ac.jp
    • Eachard's work places cop'd alongside words meaning muzzled and gagged. en.wiktionary.org
11. 11
    verbobsolete

    To bargain for something; to buy it.

    Note

    A dead trading word with its own origin: Middle Dutch copen, cognate with Dutch kopen and German kaufen. English borrowed it as a verb of bargaining and buying and later let it go. Source

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • The bargaining and buying verb has a separate origin in Middle Dutch copen and is cognate with Dutch kopen and German kaufen. en.wiktionary.org
    • English borrowed the word with bargaining and buying meanings, which subsequently became obsolete. en.wiktionary.org
12. 12
    verbobsolete

    To exchange or barter one thing for another.

    [The Patron] Will cope with thee in reasonable wise; That if the living yerely doo arise To fortie pound, that then his yongest sonne Shall twentie have, and twentie thou hast wonne.

    1591, “Prosopopoia. Or Mother Hubberds Tale.”, in Complaints. Containing Sundrie Small Poemes of the Worlds Vanitie.

    Note

    This trading verb came into English from Middle Dutch copen, kin to Dutch kopen and German kaufen. It shares nothing but its spelling with the modern 'deal with' verb. It took with for the other party: in Edmund Spenser's Mother Hubberds Tale (1591) a patron 'will cope with thee in reasonable wise', splitting a living's forty pounds. It sits beside the 'bargain for, buy' sense. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 6 facts

    • The trading verb derives from Middle Dutch copen and is cognate with Dutch kopen and German kaufen. en.wiktionary.org
    • The modern 'deal with' verb has a separate etymology. en.wiktionary.org
    • Edmund Spenser wrote Mother Hubberds Tale, first published in 1591. celm.folger.edu
    • The passage uses 'cope with' for bargaining with another party; the patron is the subject of the priest's prediction, not its speaker. luminarium.org
    • The proposed bargain divides a living's annual forty pounds into two shares of twenty pounds. luminarium.org
    • The exchange sense belongs with the 'bargain for, buy' sense. en.wiktionary.org
13. 13
    verbobsolete

    To make return for something; to requite or repay it.

    Three thousand ducats due unto the Jew, / We freely cope your courteous pains withal.

    c. 1596, William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”

    Note

    The construction is what trips readers. In Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, three thousand ducats are offered with "We freely cope your courteous pains withal." The thing being repaid is the object, and withal refers back to the payment. Source

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • In Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, Bassanio offers Portia, disguised as Balthazar, three thousand ducats using the quoted words. folger.edu
    • 'Your courteous pains', the service being repaid, is the direct object of 'cope'. folger.edu
14. 14
    verbobsolete

    To sew or tie shut the mouth of a ferret used to hunt rabbits.

    His nimble ferrets must now become pioners for their master who coupes them, lest they should grow too fat to endure labour.

    1631, Richard Brathwaite, Whimzies

    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.

    1825, Robert Forby, The Vocabulary of East-Anglia

    Note

    A warrener's word of unknown origin. Robert Forby's Vocabulary of East-Anglia (1830) says its use was confined to warreners. They sewed or tied a ferret's mouth so it could drive rabbits from their holes without biting them. Richard Brathwaite's Whimzies (1631) spells it coupes. Source

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 6 facts

    • The ferret-related sense has an unknown origin. en.wiktionary.org
    • Forby says the word was confined to warreners. archive.org
    • Forby describes sewing or tying ferrets' mouths to prevent biting while they drove rabbits from their holes. en.wiktionary.org
    • Richard Brathwaite's Whimzies was published in 1631. famineanddearth.exeter.ac.uk
    • The original title page of Whimzies gives 1631. famineanddearth.exeter.ac.uk
    • Whimzies uses the spelling coupes. en.wiktionary.org
15. 15
    nounarchaic

    A covering spread over something, such as a canopy, mantle, or, in literary use, the vault of the sky.
16. 16
    noun

    The top half of a two-part sand casting mold, lying above the parting line.
17. 17
    verb

    To clip or trim the beak or talons of a bird, especially a bird of prey.
18. 18
    noun

    A payment formerly owed to the local landowner from the lead produced by mines in Derbyshire, England.