Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to make an excuse.

1931		(con. 1900s) C.W. Willemse Behind The Green Lights 101: I see you’ve copped a plea.
1944		D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive 115: And, pops, we dig ours without copping a plea.
1958		Mad mag. Jan.–Feb. 48: If that’s the sound, someone’s copping a plea.
1968–70		Current Sl. III–IV (Cumulation Issue).
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 8: If you inclined to plea-cop, them streets contributed to the delinquency of a whole lot of minors. [Ibid.] 98: I ain’t copping no plea, motherfucker.
1985		Duke Bootee ‘Broadway’ 🎵 Some sucker-ass nigger trying to cop a plea.
1990		(con. 1930s–60s) H. Huncke Guilty of Everything (1998) 285: When junkies got picked up they would cop a plea behind ‘Oh, man, all I’m using is a little amphetamine’.
2001		(con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 43: The hotel copped pleas. The hotel blamed Lee Oswald.

2. (orig. US, also cop) to plead guilty to a lesser charge in return for the dropping of a greater one, to make a bargain.

1926		Northeastern Reporter CL 716: When I go to the north side, I may be able to cop a plea.
1939		R. Chandler Big Sleep 101: You’re going to cop a plea, brother, don’t ever think you’re not.
1949		A. Hynd We Are the Public Enemies 160: Mazer talked the most and copped a plea of manslaughter.
1959		C. Himes Crazy Kill 79: It’s gonna be like you say [...] If I cop a plea I don’t get but thirty days?
1964		J.D. MacDonald Deep Blue Goodby 99: ‘Who was convicted? The shooter. Not the guy that arranged it. He copped and we gave him immunity’.
1965		H. Rhodes Chosen Few (1966) 33: Just before they smothered me I heard Two-Ton copping a plea to give them as much of the loot as they wanted if they didn’t hurt or kill him.
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 5: Only plea I ever copped cost me three years in the slams.
1986		C. Hiaasen Tourist Season (1987) 37: That man Klein wants me to cop a plea. Says he’s trying to save my life.
1995		M. Dibdin Dark Spectre (1996) 26: The dealer had copped a plea in return for fingering his clients.
2006		J. Ridley What Fire Cannot Burn 180: Her best bet was to cop a plea, cooperate with the investigators and inform on any other metanormals she was aware of.
2008		W.D. Myers Game 122: ‘They scared of me copping, because if I cop, I can send them away forever’.
2023		Rayman & Blau Riker’s 400: The first time on Rikers, I copped a plea for six months plus five years’ probation.

3. (US Und., also take a plea) to plead guilty as charged, and hope by so doing to get a lesser sentence.

1930		M. Fiaschetti You Gotta Be Rough 203: The Monaco and the Dandy got off light, two years. They took a plea, and that avoided the bother of a trial.
1952		C. Hamilton Men of the Und. 321: Cop a plea, 1. To plead guilty and throw oneself on the mercy of the court.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 46/1: cop a plea v. to plead guilty.

4. (also take a plea) to plead guilty to a criminal charge.

1930		M. Fiaschetti You Gotta Be Rough 44: We brought him up on a charge of possession of concealed weapons, the sawed-off shotgun [...] He took a plea.
1953		R. Chandler Long Good-Bye 59: If they brought him back alive, he would have let them have it their way. He’d have copped a manslaughter plea.

5. to give in, to surrender, to compromise.

1941		‘Here & There’ in N.Y. Age 15 Mar. 9/4: Dot was forced to cop-a-plea [...] it wasn’t because she wanted to.
1960		E. De Roo Big Rumble 29: You got no boys. No gang. You gonna try to cop a plea? Huh? No chance.
1968–70		Current Sl. III–IV (Cumulation Issue).

6. (US) to beg, to plead, to implore.

1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 49/2: Cop all kinds of pleas. To beg abjectly for mercy.
a.1953		‘Death Row’ in D. Wepman et al. Life (1976) 117: There won’t be no crying or copping no pleas, / Hanging on the bars or begging on my knees.
1960		Mad mag. June 46: I took five and came on stronger, copping out a plea no longer.
1967		P. Thomas Down These Mean Streets (1970) 246: The lawyers stepped forward to cop pleas for another chance, mercy and all that jazz.
1977		(con. 1949) J.G. Dunne True Confessions (1979) 115: No copping a plea. No pointing a finger.
2000		W.D. Myers ‘Monkeyman’ in 145th Street 78: Clean was getting off with everybody standing around trying to cop a plea for Monkeyman.
2008		W.D. Myers Game 180: ‘He’s going over to the refs, asking for fouls,’ Fletch said. House saw their coach talking [...] copping a plea.