Other forms: coping, coped, copes
To cope is to deal successfully with something difficult. Cope with the pressure, cannot cope, coping well.
The preposition is with, and cope often stands alone: she is coping. It carries an implication that the situation is hard and being managed rather than solved, which is why coping is such a common word in health and care. Coping mechanism and coping strategy are the standard psychological terms. Note that in architecture a coping is the top course of a wall, and a cope is a clergyman's cloak — both unrelated.
1verbcopeTo deal successfully with something difficult.
“She found it hard to cope when her husband was ill.”
cope is a managing.
Also accepted in games: manage
Old French coper meant to strike or cut a blow, from coup. To cope with somebody was originally to come to blows with them, and the sense of managing grew out of holding your own in a fight.
Middle English
coupen
Old French
couper
English, today
cope
From Old French couper. From Middle English coupen, from Old French coper (“to strike, to cut”). The noun use went mainstream around 2020.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA