cop-out
an act or instance of copping out; reneging; evasion: The governor's platform was a cop-out.
a person who cops out: Everyone helped as they had promised, except for one cop-out.
Origin of cop-out
1Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use cop-out in a sentence
The former president urged young people not to “cop out,” before ending on an uplifting call to “create a whole different future.”
Blaming Tucson on the vile language in public discourse is a cop out.
Tell the Arizona Shooting Victims That Guns Don't Kill | Harold Evans | January 10, 2011 | THE DAILY BEASTCop Out was savaged by critics and just barely earned back its $30 million budget.
"I wanted to start somewhere and not have the cop-out that you know it when you see it," she says from her Portland, Oregon, home.
Carver argued back in a poem: “starving is more of a cop-out.”
Meanin' as you'll walk right in on Bud's tough bunch an' cop out d' Kid on y'r lonesome—eh?
The Definite Object | Jeffery FarnolFritz has been over a good bit lately and we have to put out our lights as soon as it gets dark, else we'd cop out for sure.
Combed Out | Fritz August VoigtSuddenly the burglar stopped and called to him softly: "Ain't there a cop out there in front somewhere sparking the girl?"
Whirligigs | O. HenryHe knew he was plain pastry for the Sharks, so he would hang around the first Tee waiting to cop out a Pudding.
Ade's Fables | George AdeBrownlee excused himself and followed the cop out, leaving me to explain things to His Grace.
Nor Iron Bars a Cage.... | Gordon Randall Garrett
British Dictionary definitions for cop out
/ slang /
(intr, adverb) to fail to assume responsibility or to commit oneself
an instance of avoiding responsibility or commitment
a person who acts in this way
Origin of cop out
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Other Idioms and Phrases with cop-out
Back out of a responsibility or commitment; also, take the easy way out. For example, Don't count on him; he's been known to fake illness and cop out, or She'll cop out and let her assistant do all the work. These meanings are derived from the underworld slang use of cop out for backing down or surrendering. [Late 1950s]
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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