cop
Plural: cops
Noun
- uncomplimentary terms for a policeman
- A police officer or prison guard.
- A spider.
- The ball of thread wound on to the spindle in a spinning machine.
- The top, summit, especially of a hill.
- A roughly dome-shaped piece of armor, especially one covering the shoulder, the elbow, or the knee.
- A tube or quill upon which silk is wound.
- A merlon.
Verb
Verb Forms: copped, copping, cops
- To steal or obtain something, often illegally.
- take by theft
- take into custody
- To obtain, to purchase (items including but not limited to drugs), to get hold of, to take.
- To (be forced to) take; to receive; to shoulder; to bear, especially blame or punishment for a particular instance of wrongdoing.
- To see and record a railway locomotive for the first time.
- To steal.
- To adopt.
- To admit, especially to a crime or wrongdoing.
- To recruit a prostitute into the stable.
Examples
- Harold copped to being known as "Dirty Harry".
- I already copped to the murder. What else do you want from me?
- No need to cop a 'tude with me, junior.
- She tried to COP a bonus for playing a seven-letter word, but it was only six.
- When caught, he would often cop a vicious blow from his father.
Origin / Etymology
Uncertain. Perhaps from Middle English *coppen, *copen, from Old English copian (“to plunder; pillage; steal”); or possibly from Middle French caper (“to capture”), from Latin capiō (“to seize, grasp”); or possibly from Dutch kapen (“to seize, hijack”), from Old Frisian kāpia (“to buy”), whence West Frisian keapje, Saterland Frisian koopje, North Frisian koopi, kuupe. Compare also Middle English copen (“to buy”), from Middle Dutch copen.
Synonyms
apprehend, arrest, bull, collar, copper, fuzz, glom, hook, knock off, nab, nail, pick up, pig, snitch, thieve, 5-O, John Law, John Q. Law, Johnny Hopper, Mr Plod, Officer Friendly, Old Bill, PC Plod, alphabet, barney, beatsman, bizzie, blue heeler, blue meanie, bluebottle, bluecoat, bobby, body snatcher, bogey, boy in blue, bullyman, buttons, centenier, charpering omi, chazzer, cobbler, cop, cozzer, cracker, crowns, crusher, dibble, fed, filth, finest, finger, five-o, flatfoot, flatty, garda, gendarme, glowie, guardian of the peace, harman, harman-beck, jack, jackboot, jake, lawman, mee-maw, monarch, mutton shunter, nuthook, oinker, peeler, piggy, plod, po-po, police, police officer, policeman, policeperson, polis, raw lobster, roller, rozzer, scufter, slop, statie, swine, twelve, tyre biter, unboiled lobster, walloper, wooden-top
Scrabble Score: 7
cop: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordcop: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
cop: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary