cop out

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

cop out verb

1. (intr, adverb) to fail to assume responsibility or to commit oneself

noun cop-out

1. an instance of avoiding responsibility or commitment

Etymology: 20th Century: probably from cop¹

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025

ˈcop-ˌout,  n. [countable]

1. an act or instance of failing to keep a promise or of avoiding a responsibility:
   His usual cop-out for not visiting his children is that he has to work on weekends.

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025

cop¹ /kɑp/   v., copped, cop•ping. Informal.

1. to seize or steal:
   She copped first prize in the contest.
2. cop out, [no object] to avoid a responsibility:
   He was going to help us but at the last minute he copped out.
   [~ + out + on + object]
   Don't cop out on us again.

Idioms

3. Idioms cop a plea, to plea-bargain.

cop² /kɑp/   n. [countable]

[Informal.]
1. Informal Terms a police officer.

cop.,  an abbreviation of:

1. copyright;
   copyrighted.

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025

cop-out  (kop′out′), n. [Informal.]

1. Informal Terms an act or instance of copping out;
   reneging;
   evasion:
   The governor's platform was a cop-out.
2. Informal Terms a person who cops out:
   Everyone helped as they had promised, except for one cop-out.

• noun, nominal use of verb, verbal phrase cop out 1940–45

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025

cop¹  (kop), v.t., copped, cop•ping. [Informal.]

1. Informal Terms to catch;
   nab.
2. Informal Terms to steal;
   filch.
3. Informal Terms to buy (narcotics).
4. Idioms cop a plea:
   • to plead guilty or confess in return for receiving a lighter sentence.
   • to plead guilty to a lesser charge as a means of bargaining one's way out of standing trial for a more serious charge;
     plea-bargain.
5. cop out:
   • to avoid one's responsibility, the fulfillment of a promise, etc.;
     renege;
     back out (often fol. by on or of ):
     He never copped out on a friend in need. You agreed to go, and you can't cop out now.
   • cop a plea.

• Latin capere
• compare cap (obsolete) to arrest, Scots cap to seize dialect, dialectal Old French caper to take, ultimately 1695–1705

cop²  (kop), n. [Informal.]

1. Informal Terms a police officer.
2. a person who seeks to regulate a specified behavior, activity, practice, etc.:
   character cops.

• clipping of copper² 1855–60

cop³  (kop), n. 

1. a conical mass of thread, yarn, etc., wound on a spindle.
2. British Terms crest;
   tip.

• bef. 1000; Middle English, Old English cop tip, top (in Middle English also head), probably cognate with Dutch kop, German Kopf head; see cup

COP, [Thermodynam.]

1. Thermodynamics See coefficient of performance. 

Cop., 

1. Copernican.
2. Religion Coptic.

cop., 

1. Chemistry copper.
2. copyright;
   copyrighted.