cop n.2
1. a successful bet; thus ext. as any form of ‘sure thing’ or certainty.
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Bulletin (Sydney) 7 Nov. 12/2: Unlucky dog! I lost the scent / When I went Nap. on Rocket; / They told me she must get a ‘shop’ – / No mortal means could stop her; / I thought I had a blooming ‘cop’ – / I’ve not a blooming copper. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Trick Baby (1996) 93: Blue is gonna gaff that wheel on your number and heave you a heavy cop. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Guardian Editor 2 July n.p.: Cop: Win. ‘You had a nice cop there, mate!’. | |
| More You Bet 6: A ‘good thing’ might also have been referred to as a ‘sure thing,’ or a ‘certain cop,’ or a ‘sure cop,’ or a ‘dead bird’ or a ‘dead cert’. |
2. a theft.
| Mirror of Life 15 Dec. 3/2: [W]hen Josh exhibited the rag and its contents [...] his friend congratulated him on [...] his most successful ‘cop’. | |
| Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 55: Cop. – [...] A theft or unlawful acquisition. |
3. (Aus./N.Z.) a good job obtained by shrewdness or luck; an agreeable proposition; a bit of luck or a trick that leads to large profits; often ext. to soft cop
| De Omnibus 125: Garn, Jeckson [...] yer don’t tike me in with none o’ them ole cops. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 15 Sept. 13/1: ‘Well, wotchadoinow?’ sezzi, / Alludin’ to ’is work. / ‘I aven gotakop,’ sezee, / ‘At presen’. Wot’s your lurk?’. | |
| ‘Mar’ in Songs of a Sentimental Bloke 67: An’ then I tells ’er ’ow I got a job / [...] A decent sorter cop at fifty bob. | |
| Popular Dict. Aus. Sl. 20: Cop, a good job obtained by shrewdness or luck: an agreeable proposition: a bit of luck. | |
| Jimmy Brockett 161: I was working out the details of how I could get out of the fight game and make a good big cop into the bargain. | |
| Barry McKenzie [comic strip] in Complete Barry McKenzie (1988) 98: I’m onto a good cop working here. Piss-up every day. | |
| Pairs and Loners 80: My marble’s good there for a cushy job and a few quid picking apples and pears. It’s a cop. |
4. (US) an acquisition.
| Sport (Adelaide) 21 5/2: [of a girlfriend] You have got the best cop ever you had, old boy, so stick to it, and not to old Nell. | |
| The Long and the Short and the Tall Act II: He’s no cop to us. He’s lost his value. | |
| Pimp 74: My first step had to be a fast cop. | |
| Street Players 44: Earl watched them depart, pleased with his brand new cop. |
5. (Aus.) profit.
| Grafter (1922) 25: ‘He has only to stake to win. It’s all cop with him’. |
6. (Aus.) an experience.
| ‘A Letter to the Front’ in Moods of Ginger Mick 87: When orl the cheerin’ dies away, an’ ’ero-worship flops, / Yeh’ll ’ave to face the ole tame life – ’ard yakker or ’ard cops. |
7. (US Und.) the money that confidence men allow a victim to win.
| Big Con 293: cop. The money which a mark is allowed to win. |
8. (US black) an act of sexual intercourse.
| ‘The Game’ in King Black Short Story Anthol. (1972) 302: Looking drugged ’cause I done blew his fast cop. He musta got there two-three seconds before I did ’cause it don’t take too long to cop Glorie. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | ‘The Granton Star Cause’ in Acid House 130: Ye hud the power tae git oot fae under yir ma n dad’s feet, so’s they could have a decent cowp in piece. |
In phrases
of no or little value or use, worthless.
| Bulletin (Sydney) 16 May 10/2: ‘It’s getting quite serious, old man;’ / Brown said at the Statue last week, / ‘If we don’t quickly hit on a plan / The chinks will take charge of our fleet.’ / But that wouldn’t be much of a cop; / In fact, it would be a good scheme / If we packed off the ’ole blessed lot / For a cruise in the old Wolverene. | |
| ‘On Top’ 🎵 Poor old soul! for her it was ‘no cop’. | |
| Penny Showman 83: Neither of the latter two being much cop – but they answered the purpose. | |
| Tramping with Tramps 176: My mates tried to dissuade me [...] saying it was ‘no cop’. | |
| They Drive by Night 261: That Charley of hers wasn’t much cop. | |
| None But the Lonely Heart 180: ‘Your father was a great artist [...] I thought you were going to be one, too.’ ‘I found it ain’t much cop.’. | |
| Swag, the Spy and the Soldier in Lehmann Penguin New Writing No. 26 39: Art don’t seem to be much cop. | |
| Caretaker Act I: They’re no good but at least they’re comfortable. Not much cop, but I mean they don’t hurt. | |
| Night to Make the Angels Weep (1967) II xvi: Man as con’t keep his wife ain’t no cop. | |
| I’m a Jack, All Right 125: ‘You couldn’t say she was much of a cop.’ [...] ‘When you’re stoking the fire, you don’t look at the mantel-piece’. | |
| Start in Life (1979) 84: For a couple of years I got regular meals, even though they weren’t much cop. | |
| Daughters of Cain (1995) 372: I’m not much cop at writing. | |
| Soho 167: Better wait and see if he was any cop first. |
(Aus.) anything seen as easy; esp. in phr. be on a soft cop, to have it easy.
 | Verses by a Soldier ‘over there’ 15: But I wouldn’t change foot sloggin’ / For a soft cop, or nice toggin’ / Of a job behind the line. | |
| Ridge and River 80: He’s on a soft cop, all right, getting his leafie built and his blasted tucker cooked and everything! | |
| Rooted I iii: It’s a pretty soft cop. | |
| Lingo 49: Since then the word has been used in the wider Lingo as a description of a criminal or, at least, a dubious scheme of some kind [...] and, more generally, to mean a soft cop, an easy and/or remunerative job or activity. |
(Aus.) an absolute certainty, a ‘sure thing’, a ‘dead cert’.
| Sydney Sportsman (Surrey Hills, NSW) 6 Nov. 4/3: The three cards, purse trick, break point, back-up, and thimble and pea are all fairly deadly, but for a sure ‘cop’ are not in the same street as the artful and audacious [...] Pak-a-pu joints. | |
| Register (Adelaide) 13 July 4/6: Even when a house looks a sure cop we have to be ready [...] to meet a man with a gun [...] on the lookout for us gents. | |
| Sun. Times (Perth) 21 July 4s/2: When we’ve tramped the final round, / There’s a ‘sure cop’ underground. | |
| From a Bench in Our Square 113: This is a hoss. Seven to one and a sure cop [...] You can’t afford not to have something down. | |
| Aus. Lang. 174: Australian equivalents [of dead cert] are dead bird, [...] sure cop. | |
| Aus. Slanguage. |