Green’s Dictionary of Slang

cop out v.2

[cop a plea v.]

1. (US Und., also cop out on) to confess, to inform.

L. Britton Hunger & Love 65: If anybody had thought to come along and ask you, you'd have copped out.
[US]D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam News 23 Oct. 21: We were done like a picture and had to cop out.
[US]T. Runyon In For Life 129: I guess I’ll have to cop out.
[US]M. Braly On the Yard (2002) 239: Though both Chilly and Caterpillar refused to cop out, they were routinely convicted through Raquel’s testimony.
[US]L. Bruce Essential Lenny Bruce 215: Oh, oh, somebody copped out on him.
[US] ‘Sl. of Watts’ in Current Sl. III:2 18: Cop, v. To admit something.
[US]T. Thackrey Thief 404: Better cop-out to me before my partner gets back.
[US]E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 36: The highest mark of a real partner was that the person didn’t [...] cop out, or drop a dime by informing.
[US]E. Bunker Little Boy Blue (1995) 165: He copped out that he started it [i.e. a fight].
[US]S. Morgan Homeboy 132: He would plead not guilty but be ready to cop out if their case was airtight.
[US](con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 603: She said you’re going back — I know it. He copped out. He said let me go.
[US]J. Ellroy Hilliker Curse 4: My father copped out to peeping [...] to indict my mother’s indigenous moral sloth.

2. (US Und.) to use legal plea-bargaining to plead guilty to a lesser charge in return for having one dropped.

[US]Flynn’s 23 Apr. n.p.: It was a bum beef but I copped out for a deuce because I was hot on a jug heist that called for a double sawbuck [DU].
[US]J. Blake letter 25 Feb. in Joint (1972) 13: I copped out on the larceny charges, figuring to get six months at the most.
[US]M. Braly Felony Tank (1962) 48: They probably thought you were going to cop out to every job pulled in this country in the last fifteen years.
[US]B. Jackson Killing Time 177: I think the charge was grand larceny. I copped out for one year anyway.
[US]N. Pileggi Wiseguy (2001) 26: Cop-out Louie copped me out to an ‘attempted’ petty larceny and I got a six-month suspended sentence.
[UK]P. Baker Blood Posse 258: Weatherman [...] started introducing me to the idea of copping out and getting a lenient sentence.

3. to avoid a problem or a difficult situation, to run away, to give up trying.

[US]N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 266: You’re gonna cop out for this deal tonight.
[US]E. Gilbert Vice Trap 56: You think you’ll be rich off him? Cop out, man: he look like Santa Claus to you?
[US]‘Paul Merchant’ ‘Sex Gang’ in Pulling a Train’ (2012) [ebook] So you’re gonna cop out on me, huh [...] Like hell you are.
[US]H.S. Thompson letter 28 June in Proud Highway (1997) 576: He copped out and said I should write the letter.
[US]C. McFadden Serial 45: The least he could do after copping out on Marlene [...] was to get in touch with her again.
[UK]Observer Mag. 24 Feb. 33: I wouldn’t like to have them say: ‘You copped out’, he confesses.
[Aus]C. Bowles G’DAY 94: Yer not gunna cop out now. Come on — we’re late.
[NZ]D. Looser ‘Boob Jargon’ in NZEJ 13 28: cop out v. To back down or withdraw.
[US]N. McCall Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 333: I thought they were copping out because they were scared to compete.
[NZ]D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 46/1: cop out v. to back down or withdraw.

4. (US black/jazz) to go to sleep.

[US]Esquire Nov. 70I: cop out: go to sleep. Evasiveness. Excuse.

5. (also cop out on) to let down, to betray.

[US]L. Bruce How to Talk Dirty 57: This is not copping out on the ‘starving masses of India and China’.
[US]G. Scott-Heron Vulture (1996) 27: All it [i.e. good manners] really turns out to be iz coppin’ out on yo’ manhood.

6. (US black/gang) to leave the gang.

[US]R.L. Keiser Vice Lords 67: [P]eople thought we had actually cut ourselves loose from the group. I guess they thought we was going to cop out.

7. (US) to abandon conventional life for an alternative lifestyle.

[US]J. Godey Taking of Pelham One Two Three 172: ‘Look, I only copped out recently, I’m just beginning to learn what the Movement is all about’ .

In phrases

cop (out) to (v.)

(US) to admit, to confess, to take responsibility for.

D. Maurer Argot of Confidence Men n.p.: When Camera-Eye McCarthy levels his gagers on you, you might as well cop out.
[US] ‘Good-Doing Wheeler’ in D. Wepman et al. Life (1976) 74: At his trial he lied a while, / But even he could see the end. / So he copped out to Subdivision Two, / And the judge said five to ten.
[US]M. Braly Felony Tank (1962) 31: You wouldn’t cop to something you didn’t do, would you?
[US]E.E. Landy Underground Dict. (1972) 57: cop out to [...] Admit something.
[US]E. Bunker Animal Factory 161: You know I ain’t copping to anything . . . not even spitting on the sidewalk.
L. Block Stab in the Dark 139: ‘There was another Brooklyn killing.’ [...] ‘He copped to that one’.
[US]C. Hiaasen Stormy Weather 189: Prosecutors had let him cop to a manslaughter-one.
[US]J. Lerner You Got Nothing Coming 64: Prison policy is that any contraband or weapons found in a cell are considered to belong to both occupants. Unless or until one cellie or the other cops to ownership.
[US]A. Kirzman Giuliani 30: Podell withdrew his not guilty plea and copped to lesser conflict of interest charges.
[US]Rayman & Blau Riker’s 32: I know a few people who copped out [(authors’ note) pleaded guilty] because of bullpen therapy [...] A lot of guys cop out to things they didn’t do.