If you cowp something you make it fall or tip it over, usually accidentally, eg if you are at the dinner table and you carelessly hit the teacup and make it fall over, you have cowped the cup. My parents would say, “Watch what you’re doing or else you’ll cowp that cup!” Sometimes you would say “you’ll cowp it over!” It just means tip it over. We are a Scottish family from Central Scotland.
Also, if you want rid of household rubbish you would send it to the cowp, ie the rubbish tip or council rubbish tip.
If you left some tea in your cup you would take it to the sink and “tim it out”, ie empty the contents. Then, if the cup wasn’t too dirty and you wanted a fresh cup of tea you would “syne” (or “sine”) the cup under the tap before re-use. “syne or sine means “rinse”.
Another Scots word, similar to cowp or coup, is skail, skale, or scale. If for instance you are not careful when carrying a jug of water and you skail it, it means you have spilt the water or some of it. “I’m sorry. I skailt the water on the floor”.
Skail is probably an anglicised version of the Gaelic word “sgaoil”, to spread or to spill. Also, “‘tim” probably comes from the Old Scots or Irish word meaning “to empty”. Scotland’s king John Baliol in the 1290’s was nicknamed “Toom Tabard”, ie empty coat. A tabard was a coat of arms.
