Cop
Pronunciation
- RP IPA: /kÉ’p/
- Rhymes: -É’p
- GenAm IPA: /kɑp/
- Rhymes: -É‘p
Origin 1
From Middle English coppe, from Old English *coppe, as in Ätorcoppe ("spider", literally venom head), from Old English copp ("top, summit, head"), from Proto-Germanic *kuppaz ("vault, round vessel, head"), from Proto-Indo-European *gÅ«- ("to bend, curve"). Cognate with Middle Dutch koppe, kobbe ("spider"). More at cobweb.
Origin 2
Possibly from Middle French capere ("to capture"), from Latin capere ("to seize, to grasp"); or possibly from Dutch kapen ("to steal"), from West Frisian kÄpia ("to take away"), from Old Frisian kapia, to buy.
Verb
- (transitive, formerly dialect, now informal) to obtain, to purchase (as in drugs), to get hold of, to take
- 2005, Martin Torgoff, Can't Find My Way Home, Simon & Schuster, page 10,Heroin appeared on the streets of our town for the first time, and Innie watched helplessly as his sixteen-year-old brother began taking the train to Harlem to cop smack.
- (transitive) to (be forced to) take; to receive; to shoulder; to bear, especially blame or punishment for a particular instance of wrongdoing.When caught, he would often cop a vicious blow from his father
- (transitive) to steal
- (transitive) to adoptNo need to cop an attitude with me, junior.
- (intransitive, usually with "to", slang) to admit, especially to a crime.I already copped to the murder. What else do you want from me?Harold copped to being known as "Dirty Harry".
- 2005, Elmore Leonard, Mr. Paradise, He shot a guy in a bar on Martin Luther King Day and copped to first-degree manslaughter
Derived terms
Origin 3
Short for copper ("police officer"), itself from cop ("one who cops") above, i.e. a criminal.
Synonyms
Origin 4
Old English cop, copp, from Proto-Germanic *kuppaz ("vault, basin, round object"), from Proto-Indo-European *gu- (""). Cognate with Dutch kop, German Kopf.