Cope

Pronunciation

• IPA: /kəʊp/
• Rhymes: -əʊp

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

Full definition of cope

Verb

1. To deal effectively with something difficult.I thought I would never be able to cope with life after the amputation, but I have learned how to be happy again.
• 2012, May 5, Phil McNulty, Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool, 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.
2. To cut and form a mitred joint in wood or metal.
3. (falconry) To clip the beak or talons of a bird.

Synonyms

• (to deal effectively with) handle, manage, withstand

From Latin capa ("cape")

Noun

1. A long, loose cloak worn by a priest or bishop on ceremonial occasions.
• Bishop Burneta hundred and sixty priests all in their copes
• 1890, Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, ch. XI: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. Any covering such as a canopy or a mantle.
3. The "vault" or "canopy" of the skies, heavens etc.
• Miltonthe starry cope of heaven
• 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essays, II.12: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.
4. (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.
5. (foundry) The top part of a sand casting mold.
6. An ancient tribute due to the lord of the soil, out of the lead mines in Derbyshire, England.

Verb

1. (transitive) To cover (a joint or structure) with coping.
2. (intransitive) To form a cope or arch; to bend or arch; to bow.
• HollandSome bending down and coping to ward the earth.

Verb

1. (obsolete) To bargain for; to buy.
2. (obsolete) To exchange or barter.
3. (obsolete) To make return for; to requite; to repay.
• ShakespeareThree thousand ducats due unto the Jew,
  We freely cope your courteous pains withal.
4. (obsolete) To match oneself against; to meet; to encounter.
• ShakespeareI love to cope him in these sullen fits.
• ShakespeareThey say he yesterday coped Hector in the battle, and struck him down.
• PhilipsHost coped with host, dire was the battle.
5. (obsolete) To encounter; to meet; to have to do with.
• ShakespeareHoratio, thou art e'en as just a man
  As e'er my conversation coped withal.

Anagrams

• CEOP
• OPEC