cope

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To deal successfully with something difficult.

   It was hard to cope with so much work and so little sleep.

2. 2
   noun

   A way of comforting yourself or a self-deception used to get through a hard situation.

   He told himself it didn't matter, but everyone knew it was just a cope.

Multiword verbs with cope

• cope with Prepositional verb B2

  to deal successfully or manageably with difficulty

Appears in

Simplified etymology

The verb cope comes from Latin colpus, “a blow.” It formerly meant “to meet in battle” or “to come to blows” and later acquired its modern sense of managing or dealing with something effectively. The separate ecclesiastical noun cope comes from Latin cappa, also the source of cap.

Etymology tree Old French couperder. English cope From Middle English coupen, from Old French coper, couper (“to strike, to cut”). The noun use went mainstream around 2020.

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary