or -coper, -coser, -courser, -chaunter, subs. (common).—A dealer in worthless or ‘faked’ horses. [Originally good English. TO COPE = to barter.] See CHANTER. Hence HORSE-COPING and HORSE-DUFFING.
1616. OVERBURY, Characters (RIMBAULT, 9th ed., 1856, p. 120). An arrant HORSE-COURSER hath the trick to blow up horseflesh as the butcher does veal.
d. 1680. BUTLER, Remains (1759), ii., 458. A HORSE-COURSER is one that hath read horses, and understands all the virtues and vices of the whole species by being conversant with them, and how to take the best advantage of both.
1742–4. R. NORTH, The Life of the Lord Keeper, i., 271. There were HORSE-COPERS among them.
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. HORSE-COSER. A dealer in horses: vulgarly and corruptly pronounced horse courser. The verb to cose was used by the Scots, in the sense of bartering or exchanging.
1863. Sporting Life, 29 April, p. 4, col. 3. COPERS and Chaunters are now in full feather.
1864. London Review, 16 June, p. 643. Amongst the mysteries of horse-flesh is the noble science of coping, and its practitioners the HORSE-COPERS.
1874. G. A. LAWRENCE, Hagarene, ch. ii. He had lived somewhat precariously by his wits; eking out the scanty allowance wrung from his miserly old sire, by betting and HORSE-COPING on a small scale.
1884. Daily News, 23 Aug., p. 4, c. 7. The most accomplished gipsy COPERS, if they are not belied, are not satisfied with merely doing up an unsound horse and selling him as a sound one, but frequently steal outright the subject of their scientific and often lucrative experiments.
1888. BOLDREWOOD, Robbery under Arms, ch. i. Poaching must be something like cattle and HORSE-DUFFING.
1889. Answers, 27 July, p. 141, c. 1. Allow me to expose some more tricks of HORSE COPERS.
1893. National Observer, 5 Aug., p. 291, col. 1. A veracious HORSE-COPER is a monster which the world ne’er saw.
