Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To contend or strive, especially on even terms or with success.
  • intransitive verb To contend with difficulties and act to overcome them.
  • noun A long ecclesiastical vestment worn over an alb or surplice.
  • noun A covering resembling a cloak or mantle.
  • noun A coping.
  • transitive verb To cover or dress in a cope.
  • transitive verb To provide with coping.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To provide with a cope or cloak; cover with a cloak; cloak.
  • To cover as with a cope; furnish with a coping.
  • In architecture, to form a cope or coping; bend as an arch or vault. The soffit of any projection is said to cope over when it slopes downward from the wall.
  • noun An ancient tribute due to the king or the lord of the soil out of the lead-mines in Derbyshire, England.
  • noun See coper.
  • To bargain for; buy.
  • To make return for; reward.
  • To bargain.
  • To strive or contend on equal terms; meet in combat; oppose: often with a preceding negative or word of negative import, the verb then implying ‘oppose with success’: followed by with.
  • To meet in contest or contention; oppose; encounter.
  • To muzzle, as a ferret, by sewing or tying up its mouth.
  • noun A large outer garment; a cloak; a mantle.
  • noun Eccles., a large mantle of silk or other material worn by priests or bishops over the alb or surplice in processions, at solemn lauds or matins, at benedictions, and on other occasions.
  • noun In the University of Cambridge, England, the ermined robe worn by a doctor in the senate-house on Congregation day.
  • noun Anything spread or extended over the head, as the arch or concave of the sky, the roof or covering of a house, or the arch over a door; specifically, in architecture, a coping.
  • noun In founding, same as case, 10. See cut under flask.
  • In falconry, to cut, as the beak or talons of a hawk.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb (Falconry) To pare the beak or talons of (a hawk).
  • noun obsolete A covering for the head.
  • noun Anything regarded as extended over the head, as the arch or concave of the sky, the roof of a house, the arch over a door.
  • noun An ecclesiastical vestment or cloak, semicircular in form, reaching from the shoulders nearly to the feet, and open in front except at the top, where it is united by a band or clasp. It is worn in processions and on some other occasions.
  • noun An ancient tribute due to the lord of the soil, out of the lead mines in Derbyshire, England.
  • noun (Founding) The top part of a flask or mold; the outer part of a loam mold.
  • intransitive verb obsolete To exchange or barter.
  • intransitive verb To encounter; to meet; to have to do with.
  • intransitive verb To enter into or maintain a hostile contest; to struggle; to combat; especially, to strive or contend on equal terms or with success; to match; to equal; -- usually followed by with.
  • intransitive verb obsolete To form a cope or arch; to bend or arch; to bow.
  • transitive verb obsolete To bargain for; to buy.
  • transitive verb obsolete To make return for; to requite; to repay.
  • transitive verb To match one's self against; to meet; to encounter.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb obsolete To bargain for; to buy.
  • verb obsolete To make return for; to requite; to repay.
  • verb obsolete To match oneself against; to meet; to encounter.
  • verb To deal effectively with something difficult.
  • verb To cut and form a mitred joint in wood or metal.
  • verb To clip the beak or talons of a bird.
  • noun A long, loose cloak worn by a priest or bishop on ceremonial occasions.
  • noun Any covering such as a canopy or a mantle.
  • noun The "vault" or "canopy" of the skies, heavens etc.
  • noun construction 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.
  • noun foundry The top part of a sand casting mold.
  • verb To cover (a joint or structure) with coping.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a long cloak; worn by a priest or bishop on ceremonial occasions

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English copen, coupen, to strike, from Old French couper, from Vulgar Latin *colpāre, from Late Latin colpus, blow; see coup.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English cope, from Old English -cāp, from Medieval Latin cāpa, cloak, from Late Latin cappa.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English coupen, from Old French couper ("to strike" or "to cut")

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin capa ("cape")

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word cope.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • So numberless were those bad Angels seen

    Hovering on wing under the Cope of Hell ...

    Milton, Paradise Lost, I

    December 17, 2006

  • As in "a long enveloping ecclesiastical garment" or "something resembling a cope (as by covering or concealing).

    February 23, 2007

  • COPE is an acronym for Challenging Outdoor Personal Experience. Yay boyscouts!

    July 21, 2007

  • WordNet favours the architectural sense: what I know as a coping stone.

    February 7, 2008