cop

See also COP, çöp, and cöp

English

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From Middle English coppe, from Old English *coppe, as in ātorcoppe (“spider”, literally “venom head”), from Old English copp (“top, summit, head”), from Proto-Germanic *kuppaz (“vault, round vessel, head”), from Proto-Indo-European *gū- (“to bend, curve”). Cognate with Middle Dutch koppe, kobbe (“spider”). More at cobweb.

Noun

cop (plural cops)

  1. (obsolete) A spider.

Etymology 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 kāpia (“to take away”), from Old Frisian kapia, to buy.

Verb

cop (third-person singular simple present cops, present participle copping, simple past and past participle copped)

  1. (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.
  2. (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
  3. (transitive) to steal
  4. (transitive) to adopt
    No need to cop an attitude with me, junior.
  5. (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, page 295:
      He shot a guy in a bar on Martin Luther King Day and copped to first-degree manslaughter
Translations
to capture, to take (informal)
Derived terms

Etymology 3

Short for copper (“police officer”), itself from cop (“one who cops”) above, i.e. a criminal.

Noun

cop (plural cops)

  1. (slang, law enforcement) A police officer or prison guard.
  2. (Can we verify(+) this sense?) (slang, offensive, African American Vernacular, ethnic slur, by extension) Any white male, especially large and clean shaven.
Synonyms
Translations
police officer

Etymology 4

Old English cop, copp, from Germanic. Cognate with Dutch kop, German Kopf.

Noun

cop (plural cops)

  1. (crafts) The ball of thread wound on to the spindle in a spinning machine.
  2. (obsolete) The top, summit, especially of a hill.
  3. (obsolete) The head.
  4. A tube or quill upon which silk is wound.
  5. (architecture, military) A merlon.

Anagrams

References

See also

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Catalan

Noun

cop m (plural cops)

  1. hit, blow, strike
  2. time, occasion

Synonyms

Derived terms

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Czech

Etymology

German Zopf

Noun

cop m

  1. braid

Derived terms

  • copánek m
  • copatý m
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French

Etymology

A shortened form of copain.

Pronunciation

  • [kɔp]

Noun

cop m (plural cops)

  1. (informal) A friend, a pal.
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Old French

Noun

cop m (oblique plural cos, nominative singular cos, nominative plural cop)

  1. Alternative form of colp.
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Slovak

Noun

cop m (nominative plural copy), declension pattern dub

  1. braid
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Last modified on 12 May 2013, at 21:02