Also 6–7 cope, 7 coope, coup(e. [f. COOP sb.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 Shaks. 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. Shaks., 3 Hen. VI., V. i. 109. Alas, I am not coop’d here for defence. Ibid. (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, trans. 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.
