A coop (rhymes with “soup”) is an enclosed shelter where chickens, rabbits, or other small farm animals live. A chicken coop usually has roosting bars where chickens sleep at night, nesting boxes where they lay eggs, and enough space for them to move around safely. Farmers build coops to protect their animals from predators like foxes and raccoons, and to keep them from wandering off.

The phrase fly the coop means to escape or leave suddenly, like when chickens break out of their enclosure. If someone says their teenager flew the coop, they mean their child left home to live independently. Students might joke about flying the coop when the final bell rings on the last day of school.

When spelled co-op (with a hyphen), the word is short for cooperative, which means a business or organization owned and run by the people who use it. A housing co-op is an apartment building owned collectively by the people who live there. A food co-op is a grocery store owned by its members. In video games, co-op mode lets players work together instead of competing against each other.