cop1 (kop)

[ G. koppe, kuppe, head, top, summit; cf. OF. dim. copet, coupet, summit), MHG. G. kopf, head, pate: see the variant cobl. There appears to have been an early confusion of the forms and senses of cop1 with those of cup and cope1 = cape1 = cap1: see these words.] 1. The head or top of a thing; especially, the top of a hill. [Old and prov.] = Tho gan I up the hill to gon, And fond upon the cop a won [dwelling]. Chaucer, House of Fame, 1. 1166. For cop they [the Britons] use to call The tops of many hills. Drayton, Polyolbion, xxx. 147. 2. A tuft on the head of birds.-3. A round piece of wood fixed on the top of a beehive. [Prov. Eng.]-4. A mound or bank; a heap of anything. [North. Eng.] -5. An inclosure with a ditch around it. [Prov. Eng.]-6. A fence. Hall i well. [Prov. Eng.] -7. A merlon, or portion of a battlement.-8. The conical ball of thread formed on the spindle of a wheel or spinning-frame. Also called coppin.-9. Atube upon which silk thread is sometimes wound, instead of being made into skeins.-10. A measure of peas, 15 sheaves in the field and 16 in the barn. Hall i well. [Prov. Eng.]