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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

coop.

A basket, pen or enclosure for birds or small animals.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/kuːp/Received-Pronunciation/kup/Canada, General-American/kʉːp/Australia, New-Zealand/kʉp/Northern-Ireland, Scotland
  1. A basket, pen or enclosure for birds or small animals.

  2. A wickerwork basket (kipe) or other enclosure for catching fish.

  3. A narrow place of confinement, a cage; a jail, a prison.

    figuratively · slang
  4. A barrel or cask for holding liquids.

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

Where this word comes from

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”.

verb/kuːp/Received-Pronunciation/kup/Canada, General-American/kʉːp/Australia, New-Zealand/kʉp/Northern-Ireland, Scotland
  1. To keep in a coop.

    transitive
  2. To shut up or confine in a narrow space; to cramp.

    transitive
  3. To unlawfully confine one or more voters to prevent them from casting their ballots in an election.

    historical · intransitive · transitive
  4. Of a police officer: to sleep or relax while on duty.

    intransitive · slang
  5. To make or repair barrels, casks and other wooden vessels; to work upon in the manner of a cooper.

    obsolete · transitive
Where this word comes from

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”.

noun/kuːp/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/kaʊp/Received-Pronunciation
  1. A cart with sides and ends made from boards, enabling it to carry manure, etc.

    England · Scotland · regional
  2. A cart which opens at the back to release its load; a tumbril.

    England · Scotland · regional
Where this word comes from

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

noun
  1. A small heap.

    Scotland
Where this word comes from

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

noun/ˈkəʊ.ɒp/Received-Pronunciation/ˈkoʊ.ɑp/General-American
  1. Alternative form of co-op.

    alt-of · alternative
Where this word comes from

From cooperative, by shortening.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.