• IPA: /kəʊp/

cope (copes, present participle coping; past and past participle coped)

1. (intransitive) To deal effectively with something, especially if difficult.

   I thought I would never be able to cope with life after the amputation, but I have learned how to be happy again.

2. To cut and form a mitred joint in wood or metal.
3. (falconry) To clip the beak or talons of a bird.

• (to deal effectively) contend, hold it together

• (to deal effectively) lose one's shit

• French: débrouiller, faire face (à)
• German: schaffen, zurechtkommen
• Italian: affrontare, far fronte
• Portuguese: aguentar, lidar
• Russian: справля́ться
• Spanish: afrontar, bregar, lidiar

cope (plural copes)

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

   • a 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. (literary) The vault or canopy of the skies, heavens etc.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book 4”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […] [a]nd by Robert Boulter […] [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], OCLC 228722708 ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: The Text Exactly Reproduced from the First Edition of 1667: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554 ↗:

     the starry cope of heaven

   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes, […], book II, printed at London: By Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821 ↗:

     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.

• French: chape

• French: chape

• French: chape

cope (copes, present participle coping; past and past participle coped)

1. (transitive) To cover (a joint or structure) with coping.
2. (intransitive) To form a cope or arch; to bend or arch; to bow.

   • Some bending down and coping to ward the earth.

cope (copes, present participle coping; past and past participle coped)

1. (obsolete) To bargain for; to buy.
2. (obsolete) To exchange or barter.
3. (obsolete) To make return for; to requite; to repay.
   • c. 1596–1598, William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act IV, scene i]:

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

4. (obsolete) To match oneself against; to meet; to encounter.
   • c. 1598–1600, William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act II, scene i]:

     I love to cope him in these sullen fits.

   • c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act I, scene ii]:

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

   • Host coped with host, dire was the battle.

5. (obsolete) To encounter; to meet; to have to do with.
   • c. 1599–1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act III, scene ii]:

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

1. Surname