Now only Sc. Also 5 caupe, kaupe, 6 coupe, 9 cowp. [In sense 1, a. OF. coup, cop, colp blow: see COUP sb.3 (The spelling caupe in Destr. Troy is not satisfactorily explained, but it varies with coupe: cf. COPE v.2) Sense 2 may be the same word, connected by the notion of ‘a shock that overturns,’ but it tends, at least in modern use, to the status of a verbal derivative. The remaining senses are almost certainly of later formation from the vb. (COUP v.3).]
† 1. A blow, stroke; the shock of a blow, engagement or combat; = COPE sb.2 Obs.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 1237. The kyng with the caupe [was] caste to þe ground. Ibid., 10890. Ho knowen was for kene with kaupe of hir swerd.
1523. Ld. Berners, Froiss., I. ccclxxiii. 616. [They] … thrust so sore eche at other, that the speares flewe all to peces … and at the seconde coupe they dyde in lykewise.
1535. Stewart, Cron. Scot. (1858), I. 124. Suin gat ane coup gart all hir tymmaris crak.
2. A fall, upset, overturn. Sc.
1535. Lyndesay, Satyre, 2430. Let se gif I can loup. I man rin fast, in cace I get ane coup.
a. 1586. ? Montgomerie, ‘My Ladyis Pulcritud,’ 28. Albeit from cair to cair Thou catche my hairt in coup.
1823. Galt, Entail, I. v. 40. Dear me, Mr Walkinshaw, but ye hae gotten an unco cowp. I hope nae banes are broken?
3. A dislocation or fault by which a coal-seam is tilted up. Sc.
1795. Statist. Acc. Scotl. (Campsie Par.), XV. 329 (Jam.). The coal in this district is full of irregularities stiled by the workmen coups, and hitches, and dykes…. These coups and hitches … are found where the strata above and below the coal suddenly approach, or retreat from each other, by this means couping the coal out of its regular bed.
4. The act of tilting or shooting rubbish from a cart, wheelbarrow, etc.; also the right or permission to do this at a specified place. Sc.
1887. Jamieson, Suppl., Coup, the act, right, or liberty of emptying a cart-load…. Free-Coup, liberty to coup or deposit rubbish free of charge; also, a place where this liberty may be had. [Called also free toom.]
