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• cop
  cop

  noun

  a police officer.
• COP
  COP

  abbreviation

  coefficient of performance.
• cop.
  cop.

  abbreviation

  copper.
• Cop.
  Cop.

  abbreviation

  Copernican.

SEE ALSO:

Slang dictionary results for cop.

cop

¹ American  

[kop] / kɒp /

noun

Informal.

1. a police officer.

2. a person who seeks to regulate a specified behavior, activity, practice, etc..

   Once we have the government dictating language usage, then we'll start getting language cops.

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cop ² American  

[kop] / kɒp /

verb (used with object)

Slang.

• cops,
  present (3rd person singular)
• copped,
  past participle,  past
• copping
  present participle

1. to catch; nab.

2. to steal; filch.

3. to buy (narcotics).

---

verb phrase

1. cop out

   1. to avoid one's responsibility, the fulfillment of a promise, etc.; renege; back out (often followed by on orof ).

      He never copped out on a friend in need.

      You agreed to go, and you can't cop out now.

   2. cop a plea.

idioms

1. cop a plea,

   1. to plead guilty or confess in return for receiving a lighter sentence.

   2. 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.

cop ³ American  

[kop] / kɒp /

noun

1. a conical mass of thread, yarn, etc., wound on a spindle.

2. British Dialect. the top or tip of something, as the crest of a hill.

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COP ⁴ American  

abbreviation

Thermodynamics.

1. coefficient of performance.

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cop. ⁵ American  

abbreviation

1. copper.

2. copyright; copyrighted.

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Cop. ⁶ American  

abbreviation

1. Copernican.

2. Coptic.

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cop ¹ British  

/ kɒp /

noun

1. another name for policeman

2. an arrest (esp in the phrase a fair cop )

3. an instance of plagiarism

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verb

1. to seize or catch

2. to steal

3. to buy, steal, or otherwise obtain (illegal drugs) Compare score

4. Also: cop it. to suffer (a punishment)

   you'll cop a clout if you do that!

5. slang

   1. to accept a penalty without complaint

   2. to have good fortune

cop ² British  

/ kɒp /

noun

1. a conical roll of thread wound on a spindle

2. dialect the top or crest, as of a hill

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COP ³ British  

abbreviation

1. Certificate of Proficiency: a pass in a university subject

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cop ⁴ British  

/ kɒp /

noun

1. slang (usually used with a negative) worth or value

   that work is not much cop

---

Usage

What else does cop mean? A cop is an informal term for a police officer. As a verb, cop is used in a variety of slang expressions meaning "grab" or "obtain," from copping a feel on someone (not recommended) to copping out on going to a party (meaning “not going”) to copping to (meaning “confessing to”) eating the last slice of pizza.

Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

• copping
  present
• copped
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• cop
  simple
• cops
  simple
• have copped
  perfect
• has copped
  perfect
• am copping
  progressive
• are copping
  progressive
• is copping
  progressive
• have been copping
  perfect progressive
• has been copping
  perfect progressive

Past

• copped
  simple
• had copped
  perfect
• was copping
  progressive
• were copping
  progressive
• had been copping
  perfect progressive

Future

• will cop
  simple
• will have copped
  perfect
• will be copping
  progressive
• will have been copping
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of cop¹

First recorded in 1855–60; shortening of copper ²

Origin of cop²

First recorded in 1695–1705; of uncertain origin; compare cap (obsolete) “to arrest,” Scots cap “to seize,” ultimately from dialectal Old French caper “to take,” from Latin capere

Origin of cop³

First recorded before 1000; Middle English cop(e), coppe “summit, peak; top (of a tower, building),” also “crown (of the head),” Old English cop(p) “tip, top, summit”; probably cognate with Dutch kop, German Kopf “head”; see cup

Explanation

A cop is a police officer. If you realize you're speeding in a school zone, you might look around nervously, hoping you won't see a cop. Cop is an informal, somewhat derogatory word for a police officer. When it's a verb, it means "to steal" or to "strike an attitude." An angry cop might say to a young troublemaker, "Hey, don't cop an attitude with me!" In the US, a legal defendant can also "cop a plea," or agree to a plea bargain. The earliest meaning of cop was "to catch," probably from the Latin capere, "to take."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cop COP cop. Cop. cops copped copping

Langley responded to Lambert, saying the cop must have known she was from Texas, given the chaos unfolding in the car.

From BBC ● Sep. 22, 2026

Of course an actor largely known for taking down sexual offenders on a cop procedural and for being a massive Knicks fan will host the Emmys.

From Salon ● Sep. 8, 2026

His unpredictability complicates Prime Minister Mark Carney’s negotiating stance, but he also provides a useful foil, a kind of bad cop for which Carney can offer his more measured good cop approach.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026

Cole is a former cop who feels guilty about his father’s death, a backstory as lackluster as the exposition dumps that blurt it out.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026

Moss hadn’t even seen the cop slide up next to Rawiya, Kaisha, and Reg.

From "Anger Is a Gift" by Mark Oshiro

UN Climate chief Simon Stiell has defended the negotiations while acknowledging their limitations: "No single COP can fix this global crisis, but each takes meaningful steps forward," he said.

From Barron's ● Oct. 6, 2026

Nations frustrated at the COP gridlock have sought progress elsewhere.

From Barron's ● Oct. 6, 2026

Ryan Lance is retiring next month after 14 years leading U.S. oil giant ConocoPhillips COP 1.03%increase; green up pointing triangle and will hand the top job to Chief Financial Officer Andy O’Brien.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026

The organisers stress that this meeting is not an alternative to COP, but see it as playing a key role in reviving that process.

From BBC ● Apr. 24, 2026

"THE COP," answered Yetta, pointing a dirty but reverential finger towards her new divinity.

From Little Citizens by Myra Kelly

Reflecting on filming the series, Locatelli told the Table Manners podcast: "I think I was a bad cop. I'm strict. Strict about cleanliness and organisation. Those little skills that you teach them slowly."

From BBC ● Jun. 3, 2026

“I said I’m a cop. I take bad boys to the jail that don’t follow the law. So that’s what I did. I said you know you aren’t following the rules, let’s go to jail.”

From Seattle Times ● Jun. 30, 2023

Instead, I landed on this: "I'd never call a cop. Well, except for insurance paperwork. Insurance companies require a police report."

From Salon ● Jan. 13, 2023

"I was a really good cop. I was a really good cop and I was a really good leader," Melissa Williams, 48, told KDVR's Problem Solvers team.

From Fox News ● Jan. 25, 2022

“That’s what happens when you’re the daughter of a cop. You see everything. You see it all.”

From "Raymie Nightingale" by Kate DiCamillo

“I know who he is. They call him the Honest Cop. The party has its eye on him. It wouldn’t surprise me if he was put up for Assemblyman.”

From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith

Colin had the brief pleasure of rolling in with an army of off-duty Baltimore cops, old pals of his, and taking it back.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026

The 69-year-old New Orleans native has never wavered in his claims of innocence, insisting since his 1977 arrest that the cops had the wrong guy.

From Salon ● Aug. 10, 2026

In other cases reported in US media, cops used Flock to track women who had abortions -- illegal in several US states.

From Barron's ● Aug. 9, 2026

The killers of "hero" PC Andrew Harper are due to be released and the red-top reports that Prime Minister Andy Burnham could be taken to court by "furious cops".

From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2026

All of them began to slowly back up, and Moss hoped desperately that they could find a way past the cops who still stood motionless in a line by the gate.

From "Anger Is a Gift" by Mark Oshiro

Outside of a few exceptions, substantial shares of college students in all disciplines have copped to ChatGPT-ing their way through school.

From Slate ● May 20, 2026

Surrey, having copped the worst of the conditions early in the match, showed the fortitude and skill not to lose it.

From BBC ● Apr. 6, 2026

And no athlete’s copped to the injection, which, for the record, is supposedly hyaluronic acid, if you’re shopping.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 7, 2026

I could have copped it for a couple of days but it went on for five days.

From Barron's ● Jan. 2, 2026

I checked out my pop’s shaving stuff and copped some of his aftershave lotion.

From "Slam!" by Walter Dean Myers

To be clear, Ballmer’s not copping to the laundry list of allegations in the league’s investigation.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026

Perhaps she considers it a dramatic cheat, as though the writer were copping out of the hard work of dramatization.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 8, 2025

South African lock Lood de Jager will miss the rest of the Autumn Series of internationals after copping a four-match ban for a no-arms tackle a win over France at the weekend.

From Barron's ● Nov. 11, 2025

Hugh got involved when he got "fed up with farmers copping a lot of flak" about their emissions.

From BBC ● Feb. 5, 2025

You know, check the place out—make sure ain't no badges copping some z's in the back.

From "Monster" by Walter Dean Myers