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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

Tom Berenger plays a married Queens cop assigned to protect wealthy Manhattan murder witness Mimi Rogers, while a pre-”Sopranos” Lorraine Bracco portrays the wife he leaves waiting at home.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026

George Pelecanos’s most recent novel starring Derek Strange, a black cop turned private investigator in Washington, D.C., came out in 2012.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026

And he may have been doing it his whole life as a cop.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026

He’s an itinerant cop who once had a regular job; something went wrong and now he’s a permanent temp.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026

He’d been a cop in New York City for years.

From "Hopping Mad (The Hardy Boys: Secret Files, #4)" by Franklin W. Dixon

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 emergence of this new "coalition of the willing" raises questions about whether it represents a shift away from the COP process altogether.

From BBC ● Apr. 24, 2026

Major oil companies Exxon Mobil and Chevron have an advantage because they are experts at operating abroad, as does ConocoPhillips COP 1.00%increase; green up pointing triangle , the largest pure-play U.S. exploration-and-production company.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 10, 2026

"What did the government do after the COP? They launched the dredging tender," Arapiuns told the government representatives.

From Barron's ● Feb. 5, 2026

For those who learn languages, as so many people do nowadays, by visual images, there will always be an undercurrent toward saying "COP."

From What is Coming? by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

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

“Always be respectful to the cop. Don’t talk down to him. Do what he says,” said Robinson, who spent 13 years as a Detroit police officer.

From Seattle Times ● Jan. 28, 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

“In class, some kids talk about what a good cop my dad is. He is a good cop. But he can’t be if he killed a kid, can he?”

From "Ghost Boys" by Jewell Parker Rhodes

“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

“The cops talk to me like I’m the nuisance,” she said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 23, 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

Nathan Hochman has been the subject of withering criticism from Mayor Karen Bass, former cops and even some of his own prosecutors.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 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

“Your alarm’s gone off again,” one of the cops told Ellsberg.

From "Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War" by Steve Sheinkin

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

Peter Attia, the longevity guru and bestselling author who recently resigned from CBS when his sophomoric banter with Epstein came to light, copped to his blind attraction to power.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 20, 2026

The Bath wing copped a first unfortunate yellow card for not releasing the tackled man and then a clumsy second, blundering into an airborne Kyle Steyn.

From BBC ● Feb. 14, 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

The play earned O’Neill his second Pulitzer Prize for drama, but he fumed at the way critics accused him of copping out with what seemed to them a happy ending.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 15, 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

“He was just copping some Z’s for 10 minutes,” Racki told me with a laugh in 2016.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 11, 2024

"I remember standing on the fine-leg boundary in Pretoria and copping it from South Africa fans," he says.

From BBC ● Oct. 11, 2023

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