coop

noun

1. 1

   A basket, pen or enclosure for birds or small animals.

   Poorly ventilated coops are likely to result in losses by suffocation, particularly during hot weather, when the coops are overcrowded. The bottom of the coop should be built solid of one-half-inch boards to prevent the birds' toes from sticking through and being injured.

   "Well," said Calvin, "we could go over to the chicken coop this afternoon when all the hens are inside laying eggs. We might find some clues."

2. 2

   A wickerwork basket (kipe) or other enclosure for catching fish.

   Falling in with a shoal of porpoises the vessel should be prepared with coops manufactured of copper wire, or other substance of great elasticity and strength; these coops to be lowered by blocks and pulleys in every direction round the vessel, and to be in the same manner hoisted when entered by the fish.

   The rivers and estuaries of the country still abounded in fish, and the right of salmon-fishing by nets or "yairs" (coops) was jealously guarded by land-holders.

3. 3

   figurativeA narrow place of confinement, a cage; a jail, a prison.

   'Tis the cruel gripe, / That lean hard-handed poverty inflicts, / The hope of better things, the chance to win, / The wiſh to ſhine, the thirſt to be amus'd, / That at the found of Winter's hoary wing, / Unpeople all our counties, of ſuch herds, / Of flutt'ring, loit'ring, cringing, begging, looſe, / And wanton vagrants, as make London, vaſt / And boundless as it is, a crowded coop.

   Why think to shut up all things in your narrow coop, when we know there are not one or two only, but ten, twenty, a thousand things, and unlike?

   Lou Brent rolled from his cot, got to his feet on the floor of the tiny coop.

   coop. A (gen., from ca. 1880, a country-town) prison: 1785, Sessions Papers of the Old Bailey, Sept., p. 1111, 'He has been in coop for a week'; […]

4. 4

   obsoleteA barrel or cask for holding liquids.

   COOP. n. ſ. [kuype, Dutch.] 1. A barrel; a veſſel for the preſervation of liquids.

   COOP, n. […] 3. A barrel or cask for the preservation of liquors.

5. 5

   An obstacle for a horse to jump over, shaped like an A-frame.

verb

1. 1

   To keep in a coop.

   Generally, and dependent on situation, and the disposition of the hen, there is no necessity for cooping the brood beyond two or three days, but they may be confined as occasion requires or suffered to range, as they are much benefited by the scratching and foraging of the hen.

   Under a shed, where the ground is clean dust mixed with small stones, is a good place for cooping the hen for the first ten days or so; and she may after that be placed on the grass in dry weather, but not before the dew is off it.

   It is always easy to find fault and suggest ways of improvement, but one does not always know the local circumstances, hence what I have to say will be along lines of general suggestions as to changes in the prize list, method of cooping and the building for cooping the birds.

   When weight losses are compared for on-truck cooping with bulk weighing and on-ground cooping with farm weighing, the following facts should be kept in mind: weight loss of the flock begins when access to feed and water is shut off […]

2. 2

   To shut up or confine in a narrow space; to cramp.

   The Trojans coop'd within their walls ſo long, / Unbar their gates, and iſſue in a throng, / Like ſwarming bees, and with delight ſurvey / The camp deſerted where the Grecians lay; […]

   The hard hearted villains cooped the cowboy up in a barrel and rolled him out on the prairie to die of thirst and starvation.

3. 3

   historicalTo unlawfully confine one or more voters to prevent them from casting their ballots in an election.

   In 1819, one of those municipal contests for the election of the Common Council happened, and it was attended with that profuse expenditure of money in direct bribery, cooping, treating, and in short in all the modes of demoralizing the classes exposed to such influence, which were the disgraceful distinctions of those elections.

4. 4

   slangOf a police officer: to sleep or relax while on duty.

   COOPING. The term cooping refers to police officers sleeping on duty. […] One critic of two-man squad cars suggests that this is a recipe for cooping, since one officer can drive while the other sleeps.

   This cynicism may lead to an increased number of job actions and deviance, such as the "blue flu" or "cooping."

   Cooping-prone areas are those locations where officers tend to engage in non-police activities that interrupt patrols in an unauthorized manner. A variety of such locations can be surmised, such as spending time at home or other locations not in the officer's area of responsibility while on duty. The department provided the example of officers parking in desolate areas to sleep.

5. 5

   obsoleteTo make or repair barrels, casks and other wooden vessels; to work upon in the manner of a cooper.

   When two dozen or more rings of iron were assembled around lengths of iron in this way they created a type of simple tube, termed a "barrel" from its manufacturing origin in cooping.

noun

1. 1

   A cart with sides and ends made from boards, enabling it to carry manure, etc.

   Fan Coops an' Carts were unco rare, / An' Creels, an' Corrocks boot to ſair. […]

2. 2

   A cart which opens at the back to release its load; a tumbril.

noun

1. 1

   A small heap.

   COOP, s[ubstantive] A small heap, as, "A coop of muck," a heap of dung; Lanarks[hire].

noun

1. 1

   Variant of co-opAlternative form of co-op.

Forms

plural

coops

past tense

cooped

past participle

cooped

present participle

cooping

third person singular

coops