1
: a cage or small enclosure (as for poultry)
also
: a small building for housing poultry
2
a
: a confined area
b
: jail
cooped; cooping; coops
1
: to confine in a restricted and often crowded area
—usually used with up
children cooped up in the house all day
2
: to place or keep in a coop : pen
—often used with up
Examples of coop in a Sentence
Noun (1)
was thrown in the coop for disturbing the peace
a chicken coop
Verb
restless kids cooped up in the house on a rainy day
Recent Examples on the Web
PC Magazine, 3 Oct. 2025
And a Portland veterans-only village offers a putting green, chicken coop and food pantry.
—Mathew Miranda, Sacbee.com, 22 Sep. 2025
Brendan I. Koerner, Wired, 19 May 2020
Three relative strangers cooped up underground indefinitely to avoid an unseen danger, who don't entirely trust each other?
—Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 3 May 2020
Clio Chang, Curbed, 3 Oct. 2025
About three blocks north in Jackson Heights, this boxy one-bedroom co-op was on the fourth floor of a 167-unit elevator building from 1951.
—Dan Levin, New York Times, 2 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for coop
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Noun
The first Dutch original film on Disney+, The Balloonist shows what happens when young chicken farmer Gaby's predictable life is upended by a hot air balloon crashing into her coop.
—PC Magazine, 3 Oct. 2025
And a Portland veterans-only village offers a putting green, chicken coop and food pantry.
—Mathew Miranda, Sacbee.com, 22 Sep. 2025
Verb
Instead of battling for an all-star berth in his final Little League season or attending Don Mattingly Bobblehead Night at Yankee Stadium, he’s been forced to spend the spring cooped up in a neighborhood where ambulance sirens have wailed nonstop.
—Brendan I. Koerner, Wired, 19 May 2020
Three relative strangers cooped up underground indefinitely to avoid an unseen danger, who don't entirely trust each other?
—Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 3 May 2020
Noun
The two-bedroom, two-bath co-op is situated on the top three floors of a four-story Greek Revival on West 24th Street, across from the London Terrace Gardens.
—Clio Chang, Curbed, 3 Oct. 2025
About three blocks north in Jackson Heights, this boxy one-bedroom co-op was on the fourth floor of a 167-unit elevator building from 1951.
—Dan Levin, New York Times, 2 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for coop
Cite this Entry
“Coop.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/coop. Accessed 10 Oct. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
coop
2 of 3 verb
: to place or keep in or as if in a coop
co-op
3 of 3 nounˈkō-ˌäp,
kō-ˈäp
Love words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share