Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A small enclosure or cage, as for poultry or small animals.
  • noun A cramped or uncomfortably confined space.
  • noun Slang A jail or prison.
  • transitive verb To confine or keep (poultry, for example) in a coop.
  • transitive verb To confine in a small or cramped space. Often used with up:
  • idiom (fly/blow) To make a getaway; escape.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A box, usually with grating or bars on one side or more, in which poultry are confined for fattening, transportation, exhibition, etc., or in which a hen with young chicks is shut for shelter and to keep her from straying.
  • noun A pen; an inclosed place for small animals, poultry, etc.
  • noun Any narrow, confining place of abode, as a house or room.
  • noun A cask; a barrel, keg, tub, pail, or other vessel formed of staves and hoops, for containing liquids.
  • noun A Dutch corn-measure equal to about one tenth of a Winchester peck.
  • noun A tumbrel or close cart.
  • To put into a coop; confine in a coop; cage; hence, to shut up or confine in a narrow compass: often followed by up: as, the poor of the city are cooped up in crowded tenements.
  • To make or repair (a vessel formed of staves and hoops); hoop (a vessel).
  • Synonyms To inclose, imprison, hem in, cage.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun obsolete A barrel or cask for liquor.
  • noun An inclosure for keeping small animals; a pen; especially, a grated box for confining poultry.
  • noun Scotch A cart made close with boards; a tumbrel.
  • transitive verb To confine in a coop; hence, to shut up or confine in a narrow compass; to cramp; -- usually followed by up, sometimes by in.
  • transitive verb obsolete To work upon in the manner of a cooper.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Alternative spelling of co-op.
  • noun A pen or enclosure for birds.
  • noun slang jail
  • verb To keep in a coop.
  • verb transitive To shut up or confine in a narrow space; to cramp.
  • verb obsolete, transitive To work upon in the manner of a cooper.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an enclosure made or wire or metal bars in which birds or animals can be kept
  • noun a farm building for housing poultry

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English coupe, possibly from Middle Dutch kūpe, basket, tub, from Germanic *kūpōn, possibly from Latin cūpa, cask.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From cooperative, by shortening.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English cupe, from Old English cȳpe ("basket, cask")

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