Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a fraudulent, ‘self-promoted’ officer; thus a braggart, a self-promoter.

1800		Staffordshire Advertiser 15 Feb. 2/5: Mr. Kelly has dislocatcd his Ihoulder, and is confined. The fall was occasioned by orange skin used by the Copper Captain, in the Play, which had not been swept off the stage.
1840		N. Devon Jrnl-Herald 25 June 3/6: The copper captain was brought to his level and his senses by the calm perserverance o Lord John Russell.
1840		Sun. Dispatch (London) 22 Mar. 8/2: As to the male characters, we may say of Charles Matthews [...] what we said of his Copper Captain in Rule a Wife and have a Wife [etc.] .
1859		G.A. Sala Twice Round the Clock 166: Where these ruffiani, these copper captains and cozening buz-gloaks, are to be found [...] must remain a secret.
1860		G.T. Strong Diaries (1952) III 6 Dec. 71: Willy Duncan (Duncan, Sherman & Co.) [...] thinks the money pressure in the Cotton States is going to be so severe as to bring the Bobadils and copper captains to their senses.
1865		G.T. Strong Civil War Diaries (2025) 765: Bully Wise is in many of his qualities a typical Southerner. Being thoroughly flogged, he avers that a flogging was the object for which he had been biting and gouging [...] Woe to us when these impudent copper captains return to their old place in Congress.
1883		Daily News 26 Aug. in Ware (1909) 92/1: The company contains many copper captains, brazen adventurers, and women whose character is advertised in their countenances.
1894		G.A. Sala Things I Have Seen II 60: Hoary-headed old roués, copper captains, ruined speculators, chronically distressed poets, [etc.].

(US und.) the Auburn Correctional Facility.

1909

‘The Lang. of Crooks’ in Wash. Post 20 June 4/2: [paraphrasing J. Sullivan] Copper John is Auburn Prison.

a red-headed person.

1880		D.W. Barrett Life and Work among Navvies 49: A man with red hair would be termed a ‘Copper-knob’.
1884		Leicester Chron. 12 July 10/4: ‘Look here, old copper nut,’ he said to the old pauper.
1929		Nottingham Eve. Post 20 Feb. 6/2: Copper Nob! Ginger Hair A beautiful Gift from the Gods.
1939		Rover 18 Feb. 18: The copper-knob is many times a fool, but he has the heart of a lion.
1959		I. & P. Opie Lore and Lang. of Schoolchildren (1977) 191: ‘Ginger, you’re barmy, getcher ’air cut’ has been a greeting to copper-nobs ever since it was a catch phrase in the Harry Champion song.
1966		P. White Solid Mandala (1976) 32: Arthur’s the fair one, the copper-knob.
2000		Guardian G2 22 Mar. 16: The octegenarian maths master [...] used to call me copper-nob.

(US) absolute, certain, definite.

1886		E. Nye Bill Nye’s Remarks 362: He called me a copperplate ass [HDAS].
1924		E. Hemingway letter 6 Dec. in Baker Sel. Letters (1981) 137: He has been hooked and married by the most absolute copper plated bitch in the world.

(Aus.) a copper mine.

1915

C.J. Dennis Songs of a Sentimental Bloke Copper show – A copper mine.

(Aus.) an unimportant person, a person of little social standing; thus a democrat rather than an aristocrat; thus copper-tailed adj.

1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 18 Jul. 18/2: There was war to the knife at Dubbo last week between the local ‘copper tops’ and the fastidious ‘silver tails,’ and Carcoar has the same story to tell.
1890		A.J. Vogan Black Police 116: Members of those upper circles who belong to the genus termed in Australia parlance ‘silver-tailed,’ in distinction to the ‘copper-tailed’ democratic classes.
1901		Bulletin (Sydney) 28 Sept. 15/1: [S]ocial gatherings in the bush [...] are most drearily proper. ‘Silvertails’ congregate at one end of the room, ‘Coppertails’ at the other, and the line of demarcation is rarely crossed.
1955		N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 232/1: coppertail (prole) – one of the hoi polloi.

1. a red-headed person; thus copper-topped adj.

1880		Bulletin (Sydney) 17 July 6/3: At a recent football match a larrikin was heard to observe of one of our best players who boasts of auburn hair, ‘Copper Top is down again; he’s a duffer.’ ‘Is he, sneered a comrade, ‘that’s all you know; why ginger’s the champion kicker of the crowd’.
1912		N.Y. Tribune 23 June 30: ‘Just two industries in this blankety country,’ growled Coppertop, ’grand larceny and petty larceny!’.
1913		Dakota County Herald (NE) 4 Apr. 3/1: It would be worth while for me to broach to this copper-topped stranger the scheme that had kept me awake nights.
1916		C.J. Dennis ‘War’ in Moods of Ginger Mick 26: ’E chews it over solid fer a bit, / Workin’ ’is copper-top a double shift.
1919		Marvel 3 Mar. 6: Apologise to whom, you copper-topped brat? What are you ranting about?
1951		Cusack & James Come in Spinner (1960) 5: Gosh, look at that coppertop!
1978		T. Davies More Aus. Nicknames 40: Coppertop Another redhead.

2. see coppertail