cop the needle

English

Verb

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

1. (UK, slang) To grow annoyed.
   • 1999, Roy Shaw with Kate Kray, “Nick-Knack-Paddy-Whack”, in Pretty Boy, London: Blake Publishing Ltd, →ISBN, page 82:

     It must have been the way I said it because he copped the needle and sneered, 'I haven't got to talk to you about fuck-all. Whatever I do is none of your Goddamn business.'

References

• John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary