Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a coward, someone who runs away from problems, a weakling.

1911		E. Dyson ‘Dukie M’Kenzie’s Dawnce’ in Benno and Some of the Push 44: Of all the woeful herd that went from Dukie’s dance that night the most woeful was Mr. Ben Dickson, the great ‘cop-out.’.
1968		T. Wolfe Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1969) 377: If he just stares back orientally as the current fantasy of ‘beyond acid’ is out forth, he looks like a cop-out in Haight-Ashbury.
2000		Indep. on Sun. Culture 14 May 2: He’s a cop-out, too.

2. one who attracts trouble.

1911

E. Dyson ‘At a Boxing Bout’ in Benno and Some of the Push 126: ‘Well, you’re the king cop-out,’ said the packer, having delivered Benno into his sister’s hands at his own door. ‘If yeh was t’ go t’ church the boiler ’ud bust.’.

3. a flight, an escape, a cowardly compromise or evasion, a retreat from reality.

1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 4/2: Every week provides its tear-down, cop-out, roaring ramp, ring in, or some such delightful doing.
1942		Berrey & Van Den Bark Amer. Thes. Sl. §498.1: Flight; escape, cop-out.
1964		H.S. Thompson letter 29 Jan. in Proud Highway (1997) 434: A Zen, Hip, Lovely, Maileresque Cop-Out.
1970		T. Southern Blue Movie (1974) 20: I would have liked to have followed his head, though . . . when it went down, out of the frame [...] It was a cop-out not to.
1980		Jackson & Christian Death Row 282: Plea bargaining is a cop-out.
1991		R.G. Barratt ‘Dr Doug Meets His Match’ in What Do You Reckon (1997) [ebook] Mulray [...] had to produce an old, perished fart cushion from his pants [...] What a cop-out.
1992		N. George ‘Scarface’ in Buppies, B-Boys, Baps and Bohos (1994) 68: By not hiding behind tired gangsta rapper cop-outs [...] Scarface depicts a society stripped of all pretense of morality.
2000		N. Griffiths Grits 370: It’s [i.e. political correctness] a fuckin cop-out, a way of deludin emselves that they cur about the planet an ethnic minorities.
2002		A. Duff Jake’s Long Shadow 154: But what if that’s just a cop-out?
2011		IOL News 5 Dec. 🌐 He seems to be finding the ultimate cop-out to avoid the debate on behaviour change.