Cooper

A coop for wine bottles. The bottles lie in a slanting position in the coop, and may be transported in it from place to place. We find allusions to “six-bottle coopers” not unfrequently, i.e. coops or cases containing six bottles. Compare “hen-coops,” “cooped up,” etc. (Latin, cupa, a cask; our “cup.”)

“(Enter waiter with a cooper of wine.)

Waiter: Six bottles of wine for Corporal Toddy.”

OʹKeeffe: Rogues All, iii. 4.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.