gaincope

G2A1I1N1C3O1P3E1

verb

To catch up with, intercept, or encounter (a person) by taking a short-cut.

Scrabble 13

Meanings

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

present singular third person gaincopes · participle present gaincoping · participle past gaincoped · past gaincoped · alternative gain-cope · alternative gainecope

  1. 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 Jews
    4 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 Night

    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.

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

    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.

    1659, Comenius's Janna Ling

Origin

  1. Middle Englishgeynecowpen
  2. Englishgaincope

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

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

gaincope. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gaincope

MLA

“gaincope.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gaincope. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “gaincope,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gaincope.

Source: gaincope on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.