[f. L. cooperāt- ppl. stem of cooperāri to work together, f. co(m)- (see CO-) + operārī to work.]
1. intr. To work together, act in conjunction (with another person or thing, to an end or purpose, or in a work): a. of persons.
1616. Bullokar, Cooperate, to worke together, to helpe.
1625. Ussher, Answ. Jesuit, 128. Man … cooperateth with man unto repentance.
1649. Bp. Hall, Cases Consc., II. iv. 136. Though he doe not cooperate to his owne destruction.
1762. Goldsm., Cit. W., cxxi. It is … difficult to induce a number of free beings to co-operate for their mutual benefit.
1809. Wellington, in Gurw., Desp. IV. 402. That the British army should cross the Tagus … and co-operate … in an attack upon Victor.
1876. J. H. Newman, Hist. Sk., I. I. ii. 54. The Turk began his career in Christian history by coöperating with a Christian Emperor.
1879. Spectator, 7 June, 719. Living in communities and co-operating in labour.
b. Of things: To concur in producing an effect.
1604. N. D., 3rd Pt. Three Conversions Eng., 121. Free will … can cooperatt nothing at all.
1635. Quarles, Embl., V. xv. (1718), 307. All things co-operate for the best.
1744. Harris, Three Treat., II. vi. 98. Here a double Force is made co-operate to one End.
1828. W. Sewell, Oxf. Prize Ess., 9. Vanity cooperated with taste.
1882. Vines, Sachs’ Bot., 707. If sunlight and chlorophyll do not cooperate to produce new formative material by assimilation.
2. intr. To practise economic cooperation.
1830. Gen. P. Thompson, Exerc. (1842), I. 217. If the rats were to be advised to economize or to ‘co-operate.’
1880. McCarthy, Own Times, IV. 175. Why should they not also co-operate for the purpose of supplying each other with good and cheap food and clothing?
Hence Co[-]operating vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., Pref. Some cooperating advancers.
1680. trans. Buchanan’s De Jure Regni (1689), 8. There must be a mutual Cooperating for the good of the whole.
1821. Shelley, in Four C. Eng. Lett., 508. Various, yet co-operating reasons.
