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. *cúpe fem., an unrecorded collateral form of cýpe 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. cýpe, KIPE.
When cupe, coupe appears in ME., it is as 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 cúpe, coupe, coop, is paralleled by stúpian, stoupe, stoop, and ON. drûpa, droupe, droop, where also the sound (ū) is retained, instead of being, as usual, diphthongized to (au) 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 ū = 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 basket-work 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. W. 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.’
1866. Lond. Misc., 3 March, 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.
Coop, sb.2, var. of COUP, a dung-cart.
