cops and robbers
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of cops and robbers
First recorded in 1900–05
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Until then, we’ll have to endure him playing a few more rounds of cops and robbers.
From Salon • May 27, 2026
He said in their early 20s, the rappers ran around Shakur’s backyard with unloaded guns playing a game of cops and robbers.
From Seattle Times • Oct. 11, 2023
‘Heat’ Al Pacino and Robert De Niro play cops and robbers in Michael Mann’s atmospheric 1995 crime drama set in L.A.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 27, 2022
Over 550 densely packed pages, Posner tells a tireless and occasionally tiring tale that reads like a pharmaceutical version of cops and robbers.
From New York Times • Mar. 12, 2020
“Which was it, by truck or by cart?” the children sometimes asked her on their way to play cops and robbers in the alley.
From "Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
