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Keystone Kop

American  
[kop] / ˈkiˌstoʊn ˈkɒp /

noun

  1. Usually Keystone Kops. (in early silent movies) a team of comic policemen noted for their slapstick routines.

  2. Also Keystone Cop a person noted for bungling inefficiency.

    a backfield of Keystone Kops.


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.

Family friends urged Slim to get into movies “because he was such a character,” Clark said, “so in the early ’20s, he hitchhiked to Hollywood” and became a Keystone Kop and then a character actor.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 8, 2023

This time, though, I loved the novel as a frenetic, over-the-top farce, packed with Keystone Kop action.

From Washington Post • Apr. 13, 2022

I identified the Keystone Kop on Main Street, U.S.A., as an official undercover policeman.

From Los Angeles Times • May 31, 2019

Chester Conklin, 85, silent-screen zany known to a generation of filmgoers as the Keystone Kop with the walrus mustache; of emphysema; in Hollywood.

From Time Magazine Archive

St. Cyr at the moment looked like a Keystone Kop after the chase sequence, and knew it.

From The Ego Machine by Kuttner, Henry