noun Informal.
- an act or instance of copping out; reneging; evasion: The governor’s platform was a cop-out.
- a person who cops out: Everyone helped as they had promised, except for one cop-out.
verb (used with object), copped, cop·ping. Informal.
- to catch; nab.
- to steal; filch.
- to buy (narcotics).
Verb Phrases
- cop out,
- to avoid one’s responsibility, the fulfillment of a promise, etc.; renege; back out (often followed by on or of): He never copped out on a friend in need. You agreed to go, and you can’t cop out now.
- cop a plea.
- cop a plea,
- to plead guilty or confess in return for receiving a lighter sentence.
- to plead guilty to a lesser charge as a means of bargaining one’s way out of standing trial for a more serious charge; plea-bargain.
noun
- another name for policeman
- British an arrest (esp in the phrase a fair cop)
- an instance of plagiarism
verb cops, copping or copped (tr)
- to seize or catch
- to steal
- to buy, steal, or otherwise obtain (illegal drugs)Compare score (def. 26)
- Also: cop it to suffer (a punishment)you’ll cop a clout if you do that!
- cop it sweet Australian slang
- to accept a penalty without complaint
- to have good fortune
noun
- a conical roll of thread wound on a spindle
- mainly dialect the top or crest, as of a hill
noun
- British slang (usually used with a negative) worth or valuethat work is not much cop
abbreviation for (in New Zealand)
- Certificate of Proficiency: a pass in a university subject
see cop out.
1704, northern British dialect, “to seize, to catch,” perhaps ultimately from Middle French caper “seize, to take,” from Latin capere “to take” (see capable); or from Dutch kapen “to take,” from Old Frisian capia “to buy,” which is related to Old English ceapian (see cheap). Related: Copped; copping.
“policeman,” 1859, abbreviation of earlier copper (n.2), 1846, from cop (v.).