Meanings
present singular third person gaincopes · participle present gaincoping · participle past gaincoped · past gaincoped · alternative gain-cope · alternative gainecope
- obsoletetransitiveTo catch up with, intercept, or encounter (a person) by taking a short-cut.
[…] as he was upon his Flight across a steep Bottom, Gratus gain-coped him, […]
1767, originally 1698, Flavius Josephus, The wars of the Jews4 more examples
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.
2002, originally 1565, Ovid, Madeleine Forey, Ovid's Metamorphoses[…] 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.
1910, originally 1594, Thomas Nash, Ronald Brunlees McKerrow, Terrors of the NightAnd 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.
1860, originally 1602, Samuel Rowlands, James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps, Greenes GhostSome 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.
1659, Comenius's Janna Ling
Origin
- Middle Englishgeynecowpen
- Englishgaincope
From Middle English geynecowpen, equivalent to gain- + cope (“to strive, contend, oppose, encounter”).
More words from Middle English
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
gaincope. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gaincope
“gaincope.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gaincope. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “gaincope,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gaincope.
Source: gaincope on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.