cooper
noun
a person who makes or repairs casks, barrels, etc.
Jump To:
cooper
1 American
[koo-per, koop-er]
/ ˈku pər, ˈkʊp ər /
noun
coopers
plural
verb (used with object)
coopers,
present (3rd person singular)
coopered,
past participle, past
coopering
present participle
-
to make or repair (casks, barrels, etc.).
-
to furnish or fix (usually followed byup ).
verb (used without object)
coopers,
present (3rd person singular)
coopered,
past participle, past
coopering
present participle
Cooper
2
American
[koo-per, koop-er]
/ ˈku pər, ˈkʊp ər /
noun
-
Anthony Ashley. 1st, 3rd, and 7th Earl of Shaftesbury.
-
Gary Frank James Cooper, 1901–61, U.S. actor.
-
Hugh Lincoln, 1865–1937, U.S. hydraulic engineer.
-
James Fenimore 1789–1851, U.S. novelist.
-
Leon N., born 1930, U.S. physicist: Nobel Prize 1972.
-
Peter, 1791–1883, U.S. inventor, manufacturer, reformer, and philanthropist.
Cooper
1
British
/ ˈkuːpə /
noun
-
Anthony Ashley. See (Earl of) Shaftesbury
-
Cary ( Lynn ). born 1940, British psychologist, noted for his studies of behaviour at work and the causes and treatment of stress
-
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
-
Sir Henry. 1934–2011, British boxer; European heavyweight champion (1964; 1968–71)
-
James Fenimore 1789–1851, US novelist, noted for his stories of American Indians, esp The Last of the Mohicans (1826)
-
Leon Neil. born 1930, US physicist, noted for his work on the theory of superconductivity. He shared the Nobel prize for physics 1972
-
Samuel 1609–72, English miniaturist
cooper
2
British
/ ˈkuːpə /
noun
verb
-
(tr) to make or mend (barrels, casks, etc)
-
(intr) to work as a cooper
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
coopersimple
-
cooperssimple
-
have cooperedperfect
-
has cooperedperfect
-
am cooperingprogressive
-
are cooperingprogressive
-
is cooperingprogressive
-
have been cooperingperfect progressive
-
has been cooperingperfect progressive
Past
-
cooperedsimple
-
had cooperedperfect
-
was cooperingprogressive
-
were cooperingprogressive
-
had been cooperingperfect progressive
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
A barrel was positioned in front of her, which represented the church’s first meeting nearly 250 years ago in a cooper shop off what’s now known as 28th Street in the Georgetown neighborhood.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 13, 2022
The Resolution mine could fill about 25% of the demand for U.S. cooper.
From Reuters ● Apr. 19, 2021
By this time, the cooper had seized Mr. Hollis, but, suddenly afraid, let go.
From New York Times ● Apr. 24, 2015
We strolled past the featureless stone walls of the Archives, past a cooper, a bookbinder, an apothecary....
From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss
Ed Miliband moves from energy secretary to foreign secretary, replacing Yvette Cooper who is now the health secretary.
From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026
In its unanimous 1958 opinion in Cooper v.
From Slate ● Jul. 20, 2026
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper is also seen as a potential occupant of Number 11.
From BBC ● Jul. 15, 2026
“He gets the work done that needs to be done,” Cooper said of Fain.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026
The still-very-much-alive writer, James Fenimore Cooper, was the most celebrated man at Griswold’s that evening.
From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock
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
And then again he would take him to visit the masons, coopers, joiners, and other mechanics, at work: in hopes that his genius might be caught, and a stop put to his passion for wandering.
From The Life of Benjamin Franklin With Many Choice Anecdotes and admirable sayings of this great man never before published by any of his biographers by Weems, Mason Locke
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
Their first guns had barrels of coopered timber, and the world waited for more than five hundred years before the explosive engine came.
From The World Set Free by Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)
Well, I'll get the hut coopered up a bit for you, and you shall be as comfortable as circumstances will permit.
From Recollections of Geoffrey Hamlyn by Kingsley, Henry
Well," said I, after we had fairly exhausted ourselves, "there's the spoiling in that fellow of as good a novelist as ever coopered out three volumes.
From Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 366, April, 1846 by Various
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
The shoemaking and mending, the blacksmithing, cartwrighting, coopering, weaving, and grain-grinding, were all performed by the slaves on the Home Plantation.
From Life Without and Life Within or, Reviews, Narratives, Essays, and poems. by Fuller, Margaret
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
