[f. COPE sb.1, in various unconnected senses.]
1. trans. To furnish with or dress in a cope. † To cope it: to put on a cope (obs.).
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. III. 36. Þenne com þer a Confessour i-copet as a Frere. Ibid., 138. For heo copeþ þe Comissarie and coteþ þe Clerkes.
1575. Brieff Disc. Troubl. Franckford, xcxv. Such as are turne coates and can chaunge with all seasons … can cap it can cope it an curry for aduantage. [See also COPED.]
2. Arch. To cover (a wall, etc.) with a COPING.
1665. in 10th Rep. Comm. Hist. MSS., V. App. 4. That upper part of the said wall which hath bine since made and coped by other men at day-work.
1725. Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v. Wall, Brick-Walls … are sometimes coped with Stone, and sometimes with Brick.
1788. Trans. Soc. Encourag. Arts, VI. 5. Stone fences, of a proper height coped with two turfs.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., xxi. (1854), 162. The mounds … were … coped and defended with limestone slabs.
1884. Law Times Rep., LI. 230/2. That A. B. do back and cope a hundred rods of their wall by Christmas next.
fig. a. 1625. Boys, Wks. (1629), 843. For though he may paraduenture blinde the Bishop, and cope [? hoodwink] the Commissarie, yet Gods all-seeing eye … findeth out his foule follie.
b. To cover a ridge or ‘hip’ on a roof with a metal or other coping to carry off rain, etc.
1792. Phil. Trans., LXX. 358. There are eight hips, all of which are covered or coped with lead.
c. transf. and fig. To cover as, or as with, a coping; to form a coping to.
1842. Blackw. Mag., LII. 402. Behold, where olive-thickets cope The soft and emerald-tinted slope Of sacred Scilus.
1879. Butcher & Lang, Odyssey, 222. With stones dragged thither had he builded it and coped it with a fence of white thorn.
1890. H. M. Stanley, Darkest Africa, II. xxx. 292. Tufted clumps of trees … coping some turret-like crag.
3. To cover as with a vault or canopy.
1704. Addison, Italy, 485. A very large Bridge, that is all made of Wood, and coped over Head, like the rest in Switzerland.
1821. Joanna Baillie, Metr. Leg., Columbus, XII. Midnight coped the ocean wide.
1856. T. Aird, Poet. Wks., 240. The sympathetic heavens Coping this isle of mischief.
4. Gardening. To protect (wall-fruit) by an overhanging coping, or sloping shelf-like projection.
1882. The Garden, 11 Feb., 105/3. Apricots … may be coped and poled. Ibid., 18 March, 187/1. Well coped, but otherwise exposed trees.
5. intr. To slope downwards or hang over like a coping.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. XXV. xiii. 237 (R.). Some bending downe and coping toward the earth, others standing upright.
1703. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., 159. Coping over, is a sort of hanging over, but not square to its upright.
1876. Gwilt, Encycl. Archit., Gloss, s.v. Coping, The sofite of a projection is said to cope over when it slants downwards from the wall.
