cope

verb

1. 1

   To deal effectively with something, especially if difficult.

   Chelsea were coping comfortably as Liverpool left Luis Suarez too isolated. Steven Gerrard was also being forced to drop too deep to offer support to the beleaguered Jay Spearing and Jordan Henderson rather than add attacking potency alongside the Uruguayan.

   Phyllida Barlow, the sculptor representing the UK at the Venice Biennale, has said that while it may have taken the art world decades to pay attention to her work, the timing of her recognition was perfect, adding: “20 years ago, I wouldn’t have coped.”

   From transport to zoos: how UK services coped in the sweltering heat [title]

2. 2

   To cut and form a mitred joint in wood or metal.

3. 3

   To clip the beak or talons of a bird.

   the beak and talons should be closely coped

noun

1. 1

   slangA coping mechanism or self-delusion one clings to in order to endure a hopeless situation.

   There was some public grousing about the number of white supremacists attempting to recruit, however; some incels argued that white supremacy was just another "cope"–just another self-deluding attempt to cover over the grim truth of the blackpill.

   My only 2 copes for the past 3 years have been food & the internet/surfing. Both of these copes have only hurt me further as I have addictions to both sugar and the internet now and have isolated myself further and further into the oblivion.

   Just as it sounds, a Gymcel is an incel who goes to the gym a lot, which in their mind is a cope.

   When those of us with W-2 income say the ultrawealthy are all miserable anyway, that’s cope. When some late-1950s Americans nitpicked the reporting on Sputnik because they couldn’t believe the Soviet Union launched a satellite first — that, according to the writer Jeet Heer, was “a pathetic display of cope.”

interjection

1. 1

   An expression of spite towards someone who suffered a setback.

   "The other guy cheated, I had no chance!" "Cope."

2. 2

   A contemptuous dismissal, implying that someone should deal with some problem on their own and that the speaker will not engage any further.

noun

1. 1

   A long, loose cloak worn by a priest, deacon, or bishop when presiding over a ceremony other than the Mass.

   […] there went firſt 160 Prieſts, all in their Copes, eight Biſhops next, […]

   He possessed a gorgeous cope of crimson silk and gold-thread damask, figured with a repeating pattern of golden pomegranates set in six-petalled formal blossoms, beyond which on either side was the pine-apple device wrought in seed-pearls.

2. 2

   Any covering such as a canopy or a mantle.

3. 3

   The vault or canopy of the skies, heavens etc.

   the starry cope of heaven

   Who perceiveth and seeth himselfe placed here,[…]farthest from heavens coape, with those creatures, that are the worst of the three conditions; and yet dareth imaginarily place himselfe above the circle of the Moone, and reduce heaven under his feet.

   One summer night, in commune with the hope Thus deeply fed, amid those ruins gray I watched, beneath the dark sky’s starry cope; […]

   It was, indeed, a majestic idea that the destiny of nations should be revealed, in these awful hieroglyphics, on the cope of heaven.

4. 4

   A covering piece on top of a wall exposed to the weather, usually made of metal, masonry, or stone, and sloped to carry off water.

5. 5

   The top part of a sand casting mold.

6. 6

   An ancient tribute due to the lord of the soil, out of the lead mines in Derbyshire, England.

verb

1. 1

   To cover (a joint or structure) with coping.

2. 2

   To form a cope or arch; to arch or bend; to bow.

   [W]e ſee that wreſtlers onely doe claſpe about, and imbrace one another with their armes; and the moſt part of their ſtriving one againſt another, whether it be performed by taking hold either directly or indirectly, by tripping, by coping and tugging, doe all bring them together, and enterlace them; […]

verb

1. 1

   obsoleteTo bargain for; to buy.

2. 2

   obsoleteTo exchange or barter.

   [The Patron] Will cope with thee in reasonable wise; That if the living yerely doo arise To fortie pound, that then his yongest sonne Shall twentie have, and twentie thou hast wonne.

3. 3

   obsoleteTo make return for; to requite; to repay.

   Three thousand ducats due unto the Jew, / We freely cope your courteous pains withal.

4. 4

   obsoleteTo match oneself against; to meet; to encounter.

   I love to cope him in these sullen fits.

   They say he yesterday coped Hector in the battle, and struck him down.

   Says, ‘Mistress, do you travel to be coped? / Give me my fee: for sure, a plump-cheeked lass / Shall not the porter's lodge unkissèd pass.’

   Host coped with host, dire was the din of war.

5. 5

   obsoleteTo encounter; to meet; to have to do with.

   Horatio, thou art e'en as just a man / As e'er my conversation coped withal.

verb

1. 1

   obsoleteTo tie or sew up the mouth of a ferret used for hunting rabbits.

   His nimble ferrets must now become pioners for their master who coupes them, lest they should grow too fat to endure labour.

   The use of this word is confined to warreners, who are said to 'cope' their ferrets, when they sew or tie up their mouths, to prevent them from biting rabbits, when they are used to drive them from their holes.

2. 2

   figurativeTo silence or prevent from speaking.

   And tell me Signior, why when you eate our good cheare i'th City, haue you handſome wide chops, but meeting vs at Court, none; your gumme's glew'd vp, your lips coap'd like a Ferret, not ſo much as the corner of a Cuſtard; if a cold cup, and a dry cheate loaf 'tis well.

   That is; because Roger has a vocal instrument between his chin and his nose, called a mouth, and being not muzled, gagged or cop'd; but having a free power, faculty or Page 127 May to open it, and order it as he think fit; therefore he May stretch it out as wide as he please, and swear quite cross the Island, that he'l have the whole, or at least half:

Forms

plural

copes

past tense

coped

past participle

coped

present participle

coping

third person singular

copes