[f. COPING sb.1 + STONE.]

1

  1.  One of the stones forming the coping of a wall.

2

1778.  Phil. Trans., LXVIII. 236. Cemented into the copeing stones on the parapet-wall.

3

1844.  Hood, Haunted H., I. vii. The time-worn coping-stone had tumbled after!

4

1885.  E. Arnold, Secret of Death, 4. The monkey-peoples’ mild brown eyes Glittered from bough and coping-stone.

5

  2.  fig. = COPE-STONE.

6

1860.  Farrar, Orig. Lang., i. 5, note. Comparative Grammar … has deserved the title of … ‘the coping-stone of philological inquiries.’

7

1885.  J. Payn, Talk of Town, II. 150. A question that put the coping-stone on the young fellow’s embarrassment.

8