What does "coop" mean?
A basket, pen or enclosure for birds or small animals.
Coop
/kuːp/ name, noun, verb, slang
name, noun, verb, slang ·Common ·Middle school level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: A basket, pen or enclosure for birds or small animals.
- Grammar: coop is listed as name, noun, verb, slang.
- Nearest alternatives: cage, chicken coop, henhouse, arena.
- Useful contrasts: for profit firm, free, liberate.
- Usage evidence: How are you and your wife doing, now that the birds have all flown the coop?
How to use "coop"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "coop" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "coop" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "coop" as the right word for your sentence.
If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "coop" with a nearby alternative so the final choice matches both meaning and reader expectation.
Compare nearby meanings
- Use synonyms when you need a softer, stronger, simpler, or more specific word.
- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
- Keep the original wording when a replacement adds complexity without improving precision.
Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "coop" is acting as name, noun, verb, slang in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
Compare it with "cage" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
3. Confirm with context
Use the example sentence below as an evidence check, then read your own sentence out loud to catch tone or rhythm problems.
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Final meaning check
Before publishing a sentence with "coop", ask whether the word helps the reader understand the idea faster. A precise word should reduce confusion, not simply make the sentence look more polished.
When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 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."
- 2 A cart with sides and ends made from boards, enabling it to carry manure, etc. England, Scotland, regional
"Fan Coops an' Carts were unco rare, / An' Creels, an' Corrocks boot to ſair. […]"
- 3 A small heap. Scotland
"COOP, s[ubstantive] A small heap, as, "A coop of muck," a heap of dung; Lanarks[hire]."
- 4 Alternative form of co-op. alt-of, alternative
- 5 Initialism of cross-origin opener policy. Internet, abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
Show 7 more definitions
- 6 an enclosure made or wire or metal bars in which birds or animals can be kept wordnet
- 7 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 the fish."
- 8 A cart which opens at the back to release its load; a tumbril. England, Scotland, regional
"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 facilitate the discharge of its load backwards, either by degrees into small heaps, or at once, without the trouble of unyoking the shaft horse." Agr. Surv. of Berw. p. 167. As used in the latter sense, the term is obviously from the v. to Coup, to overturn."
- 9 a farm building for housing poultry wordnet
- 10 A narrow place of confinement, a cage; a jail, a prison. figuratively, slang
"'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, / And wanton vagrants, as make London, vaſt / And boundless as it is, a crowded coop."
- 11 A barrel or cask for holding liquids. obsolete
"COOP. n. ſ. [kuype, Dutch.] 1. A barrel; a veſſel for the preſervation of liquids."
- 12 An obstacle for a horse to jump over, shaped like an A-frame.
Verb
- 1 To keep in a coop. transitive
"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."
- 2 To shut up or confine in a narrow space; to cramp. transitive
"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 in the conduct of the understanding, that it coops it up within narrow bounds, and hinders it from looking abroad into other provinces of the intellectual world, […]"
- 3 To unlawfully confine one or more voters to prevent them from casting their ballots in an election. historical, intransitive, transitive
"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 distinctions of those elections."
- 4 Of a police officer: to sleep or relax while on duty. intransitive, slang
"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."
- 5 To make or repair barrels, casks and other wooden vessels; to work upon in the manner of a cooper. obsolete, transitive
"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."
Proper Noun
- 1 A surname.
- 2 Diminutive of Cooper.; A surname.
- 3 Diminutive of Cooper.; A male given name.
Example
"How are you and your wife doing, now that the birds have all flown the coop?"
Common questions
What is a synonym for "coop"?
Common synonyms include: cage, chicken coop, henhouse, arena, bar, beleaguer.
How do you use "coop" in a sentence?
How are you and your wife doing, now that the birds have all flown the coop?
How do you pronounce "coop"?
Pronounced /kuːp/.
Etymology
Etymology 1
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”.
Etymology 2
Possibly from coop, above. Sense 2 may be from English coup (“to tilt, overturn, upset”).
Etymology 3
Uncertain; compare English cop (“top, summit (especially of a hill); head”).
Etymology 4
From cooperative, by shortening.
Etymology 5
Clipping of Cooper.