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  • cooper
    cooper
    noun
    a person who makes or repairs casks, barrels, etc.
  • Cooper
    Cooper
    noun
    Anthony Ashley. 1st, 3rd, and 7th Earl of Shaftesbury.

cooper

1 American  
[koo-per, koop-er] / ˈku pər, ˈkʊp ər /

noun

  • coopers
    plural
  1. a person who makes or repairs casks, barrels, etc.


verb (used with object)

  • coopers,
    present (3rd person singular)
  • coopered,
    past participle,  past
  • coopering
    present participle
  1. to make or repair (casks, barrels, etc.).

  2. to furnish or fix (usually followed byup ).

verb (used without object)

  • coopers,
    present (3rd person singular)
  • coopered,
    past participle,  past
  • coopering
    present participle
  1. to work as a cooper.

Cooper 2 American  
[koo-per, koop-er] / ˈku pər, ˈkʊp ər /

noun

  1. Anthony Ashley. 1st, 3rd, and 7th Earl of Shaftesbury.

  2. Gary Frank James Cooper, 1901–61, U.S. actor.

  3. Hugh Lincoln, 1865–1937, U.S. hydraulic engineer.

  4. James Fenimore 1789–1851, U.S. novelist.

  5. Leon N., born 1930, U.S. physicist: Nobel Prize 1972.

  6. Peter, 1791–1883, U.S. inventor, manufacturer, reformer, and philanthropist.


Cooper 1 British  
/ ˈkuːpə /

noun

  1. Anthony Ashley. See (Earl of) Shaftesbury

  2. Cary ( Lynn ). born 1940, British psychologist, noted for his studies of behaviour at work and the causes and treatment of stress

  3. Gary, real name Frank James Cooper. 1901–61, US film actor; his many films include Sergeant York (1941) and High Noon (1952), for both of which he won Oscars

  4. Sir Henry. 1934–2011, British boxer; European heavyweight champion (1964; 1968–71)

  5. James Fenimore 1789–1851, US novelist, noted for his stories of American Indians, esp The Last of the Mohicans (1826)

  6. Leon Neil. born 1930, US physicist, noted for his work on the theory of superconductivity. He shared the Nobel prize for physics 1972

  7. Samuel 1609–72, English miniaturist

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

cooper 2 British  
/ ˈkuːpə /

noun

  1. Also called: hooper. a person skilled in making and repairing barrels, casks, etc

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

verb

  1. (tr) to make or mend (barrels, casks, etc)

  2. (intr) to work as a cooper

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

Inflected Forms

Nouns

Participles

Conjugated Forms

Present

Past

Future


Etymology

Origin of cooper

1350–1400; Middle English couper < Middle Low German kūper or Middle Dutch cūper < Medieval Latin cūpārius ( Latin cūp ( a ) cask, vat + -ārius -ary )


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

The look of the university is an amalgam of Italian, Moorish and American architectural styles, with a blending of materials such as plaster, cooper and wood.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 7, 2025

The Resolution mine could fill about 25% of the demand for U.S. cooper.

From Reuters ● Apr. 19, 2021

Then they are tied into sheets via tiny loops of cooper wire, and those sheets combine into sweeping compositions of 1,000 square feet or more.

From New York Times ● Mar. 28, 2019

Currently only those under 30 years old who don't have access to an affordable plan in their area can buy the so-called cooper plans from the ACA insurance exchanges.

From Washington Post ● Jul. 25, 2018

“Better to be a lucky cooper than an unlucky sailor?”

From "Carry On, Mr. Bowditch" by Jean Lee Latham

Cooper added more costumes as new Disney movies came out, as well as updating the old ones, Caprilozzi says.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 25, 2026

And it wasn’t just fictional heroes, either: Cooper had a line of costumes based on U.S. presidents.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 25, 2026

"No amount of glue in any publisher's factory could ever hold this," she told Cooper.

From Barron's ● Oct. 23, 2026

Kim Cooper, a close observer of downtown politics and co-owner of Esotouric tours, said that after a while, it seemed that the hotel’s owner, the Chetrit Group, “just locked the door.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 23, 2026

They were like nameless men in a scary nursery rhyme—the butcher, the iceman, and the barber—until Lettie identified them as Mr. Simon, Mr. Pickerton, and Mr. Cooper.

From "Moon Over Manifest" by Clare Vanderpool

Mr. Fox has carefully rooted through economic history as well as roamed through the countryside in search of traditional artisans, such as bell founders and coopers, to interview.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 14, 2025

In France, coopers dried their wood for up to three years, while U.S. manufacturers tended to stop at a year.

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 5, 2016

In France, coopers dried their wood for up to three years, while Americans tended to stop at a year.

From New York Times ● Aug. 27, 2016

But Diageo said the plan would create 110 new jobs aimed at young people including apprentice coopers and coppersmiths.

From The Guardian ● Jun. 6, 2012

Also wanted some good carpenters, blacksmiths, coopers, and bricklayers.—Apply to me, at the Carolina Hotel.

From Slavery and the Constitution by William Ingersoll Bowditch

As coopered up into print by a quartet of British writers, the earlier lives of the fascinating Bellamy servants have been drowned in tears and treacle.

From Time Magazine Archive

The ribs below their throbbing fingers became the wobbly staves of a poorly coopered barrel.

From Time Magazine Archive

August 10.—To day I prepared for another exploration to the N. W. and had all our casks and kegs new coopered and filled with water, to make them water tight.

From Journals of Expeditions of Discovery into Central Australia and Overland from Adelaide to King George's Sound in the Years 1840-1: Sent By the Colonists of South Australia, with the Sanction and Support of the Government: Including an Account of the Manners and Customs of the Aborigines and the State of Their Relations with Europeans — Complete by Edward John Eyre

And he coopered with fury in the interval of the boats coming down the Rhine.

From The Cloister and the Hearth A Tale of the Middle Ages by Charles Reade

The captain coopered the head, which was missing, and made holes for me to get the air; but the perspiration ran off my face in a stream.

From Life in the Grey Nunnery at Montreal by Sarah J. Richardson

Two women have been accepted as coopering apprentices by drinks giant Diageo for the first time.

From BBC ● Mar. 4, 2019

Ms Cochrane, a former psychiatric nurse, said she discovered coopering after spotting an advert on Facebook.

From BBC ● Mar. 4, 2019

Seabrook has denied in sworn affidavits that there was anything improper about the investment and says he is coopering fully with the latest federal probe.

From US News ● May 27, 2015

Dressed-up role-players, who demonstrate such crafts as coopering and pottery, help bring alive Portsmouth’s past and make you feel that you, too, might have loved life in Colonial times.

From New York Times ● Aug. 1, 2013

In spite of many accidents, this coopering technique persisted through the fifteenth century.

From Artillery Through the Ages A Short Illustrated History of Cannon, Emphasizing Types Used in America by Albert Manucy

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