coops

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

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

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