Not sure it's cope as much as being unable to accept that their attempted put down is having no effect. Bully is in their own head about their inability to get under someone's skin.
To contend or strive, especially on even terms or with success.
"coping with child-rearing and a full-time job."
To contend with difficulties and act to overcome them.
To form a cope or arch; to bend or arch; to bow.
As a foreigner it’s really jarring seeing this verb adopting a new meaning of “failing to cope”. I’ve seen it many times, it’s definitely not you and not new, but it does make the English language just a tad more inaccessible.
it's mostly just internet lingo. English is not my native language either and I sometimes have the opposite problem: I know/use the internet definition/meaning but not the "official" one lol
Urban Dictionary is your friend in such cases, that's where I usually go for stuff like this
Spend more time around people under 25, while they're around other people who are also under that age. I hear it a lot.
Edit: To be clear, I'm not even under 25. Just spend a lot of time with people who are. Makes you feel old when younger folks 'code-switch' and use different language choices with you...
but tbh I will probably feel the same when I have to talk with the "skibbidy toilet" generation (aka gen alpha) in the future
(I only recently found out what that even is 💀)
Im kinda an english native depending on definition but for a very long time i mainly used it on the internet so sometimes i use too many contractions and slang with people who are not as good with it which can lead to confusion.
It's their insecurities dripping through because they deem themselves power users and learn that they don't actually know shit so they usually very ignorantly and incorrectly put it down. It's a hard pill to swallow when they realize they are just LTT gamer bro Windows users that struggle to use something my grandma runs.