gaincope

English

Alternative forms

• gain-cope, gainecope

Etymology

From Middle English geynecowpen, equivalent to gain- +‎ cope (“to strive, contend, oppose, encounter”).

Verb

gaincope (third-person singular simple present gaincopes, present participle gaincoping, simple past and past participle gaincoped)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To catch up with, intercept, or encounter another person by taking a short-cut.
   • 2002, originally 1565, Ovid, ‎Madeleine Forey, Ovid's Metamorphoses:

     These came forth later than the rest but, coasting thwart a hill, They did gaincope him as he came and held their master still Until that all the rest came in and fastened on him too.

   • 1910, originally 1594, Thomas Nash, ‎Ronald Brunlees McKerrow, Terrors of the Night:

     […] and to a companie of my malcontent companions will discouer if it please them, how to be gainfull and gain-coping nauigators if they will insist in my directions.

   • 1860, originally 1602, Samuel Rowlands, ‎James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps, Greenes Ghost:

     And sooth to say, I thinke euery man to bee of my minde, that when they see a fellow leape from the subiect he is handling, to disswade them by stale arguments from the thing they already detest, they should skip it ouer, and neuer reade it, gainecope him at the next turning point to his text.

   • 1659, Comenius's Janna Ling:

     Some indeed there have been, of a more heroical strain, who striving to gaincope these ambages, by venturing on a new discovery, have made their voyage in half the time.

   • 1767, originally 1698, Flavius Josephus, The wars of the Jews:

     […] as he was upon his Flight across a steep Bottom, Gratus gain-coped him, […]

Derived terms

• gaincoping