Obs. exc. dial. [see prec.]
1. A tuft of feathers on a fowl’s head; a crest.
a. 1634. Randolph, Amyntas, II. iii. Like the Copple-crowne The Lapwing has.
1706. E. Ward, Hud. Rediv., II. III. 14. Thus did he straddle up and down, Like stalking Cock with copple Crown.
1730. Swift, Panegyr. Dean. Whose Off’rings … Adorn our crystal River’s Banks: Nor seldom grace the flow’ry Downs, With spiral Tops, and Copple-Crowns.
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Copple-crown, a tuft of feathers on the head of a fowl, permanently erect. It is sometimes called a topple-crown.
2. Short for copple-crowned hen; = COPPY sb.2 (U.S. local).
Hence † Copple-crowned ppl. a., crested, peaked.
1685. L. Wafer, Voy. (1729), 336. Of different colours and breeds, as Copple-crown’d, the common Dunghill cock and hen, and of the Game kind.
1732. Mrs. Delany, Corr., I. 362. You are very good in getting the copple-crowned fowl.
1732. Swift, Wks. (1778), IV. 191. Excrements … copple crowned with a point like a cone or pyramid.
