Word.ws English Dictionary

coop

Syllables: co·op/kuːp/US/kup/

coop noun: a basket, pen or enclosure for birds or small animals. Also the alternative form of co-op.

coop: a basket, pen or enclosure for birds or small animals
Image: Russell Lee, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

coop (plural coops)

  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.1927 December, Rob R. Slocum, “Marketing Poultry”, in Farmers' Bulletin (Bulletin (United States Department of Agriculture, Division of Publications)), number 1377, Washington, D.C.: United States...
    • "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."2011, Connie M. Ramsey, Calvin Coyote and the Chicken Coop Caper, Mustang, Okla.: Tate Publishing & Enterprises, →ISBN
  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...1834 October, H. F., “Suggestions Relative to the Oil Fisheries”, in The United Service Journal and Naval and Military Magazine, number III, London: Published for Henry Colburn by Richard Bentley...
    • At a Court held 10th December, 1868, the Special Commissioners for English Fisheries made an order declaring to be legal, subject to certain alterations, a coop or fishing apparatus of the respondent, situated at Salmon Hall, near Workington, in the river Derwent, in the county of Cumberland, which...1870 July 11, Chief Justice Bovill, Court of Common Pleas, “Lord Leconfield and others, appellants, v. Earl of Lonsdale, respondent”, in Montagu Chambers, Francis Towers Streeten, Frederick Hoare...
  3. (figuratively, slang) A 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...1785, William Cowper, “The Garden”, in The Task, a Poem, in Six Books. By William Cowper … To which are Added, by the Same Author, An Epistle to Joseph Hill, Esq. Tirocinium, or a Review of Schools...
    • 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?1850, R[alph] W[aldo] Emerson, “Montaigne; or, the Skeptic”, in Representative Men. Seven Lectures, London: George Routledge & Co., Soho Square, →OCLC, page 94
  4. (obsolete) A barrel or cask for holding liquids.
    • COOP. n. ſ. [kuype, Dutch.] 1. A barrel; a veſſel for the preſervation of liquids.[1755, Samuel Johnson, “coop”, in A Dictionary of the English Language: In which the Words are Deduced from their Originals, and Illustrated in their Different Significations by Examples from the...
    • COOP, n. […] 3. A barrel or cask for the preservation of liquors.[1832, Noah Webster, “coop”, in E[dmund] H[enry] Barker, editor, A Dictionary of the English Language [...] In Two Volumes. [...] Reprinted by E. H. Barker, Esq., of Thetford, Norfolk, from a Copy...
  5. An obstacle for a horse to jump over, shaped like an A-frame.

Verb

coop (third-person singular simple present coops, present participle cooping, simple past and past participle cooped)

  1. (transitive) 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.1830, Bonington Moubray [pseudonym; John Lawrence], “Domestic Poultry, &c. &c.”, in A Practical Treatise on Breeding, Rearing, and Fattening All Kinds of Domestic Poultry, Pheasants, Pigeons, and...
    • 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.1867, Elizabeth Watts, Poultry: An Original and Practical Guide to Their Breeding, Rearing, Feeding, and Exhibiting, London: Frederick Warne & Co., →OCLC, page 41
  2. (transitive) To shut up or confine in a narrow space; to cramp.
    • But the contempt of all other knowledge, as if it were nothing in comparison of law or physic, of astronomy or chemistry, or perhaps some yet meaner part of knowledge, wherein I have got some smattering, or am somewhat advanced, is not only the mark of a vain or little mind; but does this prejudice...1706, John Locke, “Of the Conduct of the Understanding”, in Posthumous works of Mr. John Locke: viz. I. Of the Conduct of the Understanding. II. An Examination of P. Malebranche's Opinion of Seeing...
    • 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; […][1788?], Virgil, “The Second Book of the Æneid”, in William Henry Melmoth, editor, The Whole Genuine Works of Virgil, the Famous Roman Poet: Including New and Complete Editions of The Æneid...
  3. (historical, intransitive, transitive) To 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...1838, Richard Mackenzie Bacon, A Memoir of the Life of Edward, Third Baron Suffield, Norwich, Norfolk: Not published; printed by Bacon, Kinnebrook, and Bacon, →OCLC, page 70
    • At Cambridge in the 1835 election it was reported that 'the worst features of the old system were maintained of cooping and taking away voters and keeping them drunk'. Cooping of the more unpleasant kind consisted in abducting the supporters of an opponent and keeping them out of the way until the...1953, Norman Gash, Politics in the Age of Peel: A Study in the Technique of Parliamentary Representation, 1830–1850, London; New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green, →OCLC
  4. (intransitive, slang) Of 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.2001, Mitchel P. Roth, Historical Dictionary of Law Enforcement, Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, →ISBN, pages 76–77
    • One of his first, and most groundbreaking, stories was about "cooping," police slang for sleeping on duty. It was sparked when Burnham interviewed Jim Curran, then a New York City policeman, who referred to someone being "in the coop," Burnham recalled. […] Burnham heard that every day thousands...2010, Bill Kovach, Tom Rosenstiel, Blur: How to Know What's True in the Age of Information Overload, New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury USA, →ISBN, page 155
  5. (obsolete, transitive) To 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.2006, Cathal J. Nolan, The Age of Wars of Religion, 1000–1650: An Encyclopedia of Global Warfare and Civilization (Greenwood Encyclopedias of Modern World Wars), volumes I (A–K), Westport, Conn....
    • To the left [of the print] is a group of three figures around a collapsing barrel. […] The barrel disintegrates into its constituent staves, literally translating into picture the Dutch expression 'in duigen vallen' (to become utterly undone). Earlier we saw that cooping a barrel stands for forging...2011, Joke Spaans, “Fortune-seekers and Rebels”, in Graphic Satire and Religious Change: The Dutch Republic 1676–1707 (Religious History and Culture Series; 5), Leiden; Boston, Mass.: Brill...

Noun (2)

coop (plural coops)

  1. (England, Scotland, regional) 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. […]1794, “The lamb-leader” [pseudonym; William Anderson], The Piper of Peebles. A Tale, Dundee: Printed by T. Colvill for the author, →OCLC, page 5
  2. (England, Scotland, regional) A cart which opens at the back to release its load; a tumbril.
    • COOP, […] A cart, the box of which moves upon its shafts by hinges, by which means it may be emptied of its load without unyoking the horse, S. "The body of the cowp-cart is attached to the shafts by a peculiar kind of hinges, which allow of elevating it before, either partially or entirely, to...[1825, John Jamieson, “COOP”, in Supplement to the Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language: […], volume I (A–J) (in Scots), Edinburgh: […] University Press; for W[illiam] & C[harles] Tait...

Noun (3)

coop (plural coops)

  1. (Scotland) A small heap.
    • COOP, s[ubstantive] A small heap, as, "A coop of muck," a heap of dung; Lanarks[hire].[1825, John Jamieson, “coop”, in Supplement to the Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language: Illustrating the Words in their Different Significations, by Examples from Ancient and Modern...

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Coop

Coop (plural Coops)

  1. A surname.

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Coop

Coop (plural Coops)

  1. A surname.
  2. A male given name.

Noun (4) capitalized: COOP

COOP

  1. (Internet, abbreviation, initialism, Web) Initialism of cross-origin opener policy.

Also used as

coop is also the alternative form of co-op.

coop meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Telugu

coop in Hindi

कोऑप

coop in Marathi

कोऑप

coop in Urdu

کواپ, کووپ

coop in Telugu

కూప్
More languagesFewer languages
coop in Kannada
ಕೋಪ್, ಕೂಪ್
coop in Punjabi
ਕੋਆਪ
coop in Odia
କଓପ୍
coop in Nepali
कोअप
coop in Tagalog
tangkal
coop in Arabic
قُنّ qunn, خُمّ ḵumm
coop in Malay
reban
coop in Persian
کابوک kâbuk
coop in Thai
เล้า láo

Examples of coop in a sentence

  • With this collection of 14 coop designs, our hope is to expand the definition of what a chicken coop is or could be.2012, Kevin McElroy, Matthew Wolpe, “Preface”, in Reinventing the Chicken Coop: 14 Original Designs with Step-by-Step Building...
  • 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.1900–1907, Andrew Lang, A History of Scotland from the Roman Occupation, Edinburgh; London: W[illiam] Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC:
  • Lou Brent rolled from his cot, got to his feet on the floor of the tiny coop.1929 September, Raoul F[alconia] Whitfield, “The Dog-Fight”, in Boys' Life, volume XIX, number 9, Irving, Tx.: Boy Scouts of America...
  • 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'; […]1968, Eric Partridge, A Dictionary of the Underworld: British and American; being the Vocabularies of Crooks, Criminals, Racketeers...

All 32 example sentences with coop

Forms of coop

Noun
pluralcoops
alternative formcoup
Verb
third-person singular presentcoops
present participlecooping
past participlecooped
pastcooped
Proper noun
pluralCoops

Plural of coop: coops

Origin of coop

From Middle English cǒupe, cupe, from Old English cȳpe (“basket, cask”) or possibly from Middle Dutch cûpe (compare modern Dutch kuip, Saterland Frisian kupe, Middle Low German kûpe), from Old Saxon *kûpa, côpa (“cask”) (compare Middle Low German kôpe, Old High German chôfa, chuofa, Middle High German kuofe, modern regional German Kufe f (“cask”)), probably from Latin cūpa, Medieval Latin cōpa (“cask”) (thus a doublet of coupe, cup, and keeve). However, the Oxford English Dictionary notes that if the word is from Latin, “it is difficult to account for the umlaut in Old English cýpe”.

Possibly from coop, above. Sense 2 may be from English coup (“to tilt, overturn, upset”).

Uncertain; compare English cop (“top, summit (especially of a hill); head”).

Words formed from coop

Phrases with coop

Words that rhyme with coop

39 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about coop

What does coop mean?
Coop means a basket, pen or enclosure for birds or small animals.
What is coop in Hindi?
Coop in Hindi is कोऑप. See Coop meaning in Hindi.
How do you use coop in a sentence?
With this collection of 14 coop designs, our hope is to expand the definition of what a chicken coop is or could be.
What part of speech is coop?
Coop can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce coop?
Coop is pronounced /kuːp/ (UK).
What is the plural of coop?
The plural of coop is coops.

Words near coop in the dictionary

  1. coonvicted
  2. coonviction
  3. coonvictions
  4. cooold
  5. cooool
  6. coop
  7. coop in
  8. coop up
  9. Coop.
  10. cooped
  11. cooped in

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: coop (page history and authors); Coop (page history and authors); COOP (page history and authors); coop (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); coop (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); coop (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); coop (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); coop (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); coop (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); coop (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); coop (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-coupe.wav, en-au-coop.ogg.

Cite this entry: “coop.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/coop. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.