Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a thief.

1861

Bell’s Life in Sydney 2 Mar. 3/3: [He] did not ‘feel justified’ in adopting any other course but that of sending the ‘copper’ to cool her coppers at Darlinghurst.

(drugs) money set aside for the purchase of drugs.

1971		D. Goines Dopefiend (1991) 214: What hurts is that it’s part of our cop money.
1998		L. Stringer Grand Central Winter (1999) 144: Tall, dark, and ragged, cop money scrunched in his fist.

(US) of a pimp, a particularly smart, legitimate suit of clothes, worn spec. to entice and seduce potential prostitutes.

1981

A.K. Shulman On the Stroll 8: Instead of partying, he’d got his copping clothes cleaned and pressed.

(US drugs) a street corner on which drug dealers collect to sell their wares.

1995

(con. 1985–90) P. Bourjois In Search of Respect 29: I went down a side street that happened to be a heroin ‘copping corner.’.

(US Und.) the initiatory act of sexual intercourse between a newly recruited whore and her pimp.

1977

J.L. Dillard Lex. Black Eng. 88: One of Silky’s girls describes the copping fuck of the newly accepted member of the stable – fifteen different positions.

(drugs) that area of a town or city where users will find the main drug market.

1989		(con. 1982–6) T. Williams Cocaine Kids (1990) 14: It was a place to ‘cop’ (buy), a ‘copping zone’.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 6: Copping zones — Specific areas where buyers can purchase drugs.

a phr. used to describe a mean person or attitude, lit. ‘all take and no give’.

1887		‘’Arry on Law and Order’ in Punch 26 Nov. 249/2: I do ’ate a blood-sucking screw / Who sponges and never stands Sam, and whose motto’s ‘all cop and no blue’.
1890		‘’Arry on the Sincerest Form of Flattery’ in Punch 20 Sept. 144/2: All cop and no blue ain’t my motter.

see separate entry.

1. (US Und.) of a confidence trickster, to lure in a victim to a dice or card game by playing fair, i.e. by winning and losing as dictated by the law of averages.

1914		Jackson & Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Sl. 18: blow [...] ‘A shilliber’s work is to cop and blow,’ i.e., to take and give in a gambling, ostensibly winning and losing in good faith from and to a confederate.
1940		D. Maurer Big Con 260: The con men ‘cop and blow’ so that no one will suspect them.

2. (US Und.) to perform any kind of quick swindle.

1926		Maines & Grant Wise-crack Dict. 6/2: Cop and blow – The skin game man’s signal to his confederates to win and walk away.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 210/2: Stick, cop, and blow! (Carnival) Take the victim’s money and leave him.
1967		B. Gonzales I Paid My Dues 101: He reconciled himself to the name of the game. ‘Cop and Blow’ (win and lose) and made his way uptown.
2001		‘Randy Everhard’ Tattoo of a Naked Lady 9: My dick is long and my cons are short. Cop and blow, that’s my motto – take the money and run.

3. (US) to do something quickly and then leave, e.g. a theft, a quick purchase (of fast food, drugs, prostitutes etc).

1905		Little Falls Herald (MN) 31 Mar. 3/3: How to Operate the Shell Game with Profit [...] If the spieler should happen to fumble the pill while the dough is up, it is best to cop and blow at once.
1937		B. Dai Opium Addiction in Chicago 198: Cop and blow. An expression meaning ‘Take it and go quickly.’ This expression is generally applied to drugs.
1962		P. Crump Burn, Killer, Burn! 290: I don’t need no book to tell me when to cop and when to blow.
1968		N. Heard Howard Street 243: You know the name of the game: Cop and Blow. You lose on this end but you gain on another. Ain’t nothin’ to cry about.
1972		(con. 1950s) D. Goines Whoreson 87: After all, the game is cop and blow.
1972		E. Grogan Ringolevio 46: He had no [...] excessive style of stealing like his two partners – his way was simply to cop and blow.
1972		Milner & Milner Black Players 42: Often a pimp knows in advance that the woman will only stay with him for a comparatively short time, so he tries to get as much money out of her as he can before she blows (leaves him). This technique is known as short money or cop and blow.
1977		J.L. Dillard Lex. Black Eng. 88: To cop (also to catch, or to pull) as a transitive verb is not, of course, peculiar to prostitution, but cop without expressed object meaning ‘induce a girl to ally herself with a particular pimp’ is. To lose a girl to another pimp is to blow, and the (usually) more or less friendly competition between pimps is described as cop and blow.
1981		A.K. Shulman On the Stroll 9: Better, then, to cop and blow — take what you could get and cut her loose.
1982–2004		G. Sculatti Catalog of Cool 🌐 (to) cop and blow (verb): To make a purchase and split the scene. ‘Let’s make it to McDonalds, cop and blow.’.
1996–2000		(con. 1940s) Deuce Ofay Productions ‘The Jive Bible’ at JiveOn.com 🌐 Cop and blow [...] You slap yo’self a good, long peep at Kenny, boy. Check his action – he gots a fly crutch, a diff’rent zoot suit fo’ every piece o’ seven an’ a rep dat come through de slammer trey hours befo’ he slide in. Kenny’s secret be dat he cop an’ blow, keepin’ de green flow.

4. (US black teen) to run off.

a.1955		‘Good-Doing Wheeler’ in D. Wepman et al. Life (1976) 77: So get in the wind, go where you been. / Cop and blow is part of the game.
1962		P. Crump Burn, Killer, Burn! 301: Hey! The bulladeens! Cop and blow! before discarding her; thus also in fig. use as regards one’s general lifestyle: the short view.
a.1963		‘The Fall’ in D. Wepman et al. Life (1976) 86: Bitch, you ain’t no lame, you know the Game; / They call it cop and blow. / You’ve had your run, and now you’re done.

5. (US black) to exploit an unsatisfactory prostitute for as much money as possible.

1994

(ref. to 1950s) C. Major Juba to Jive.

see cop a heel under heel v.¹

the act of transferring contraband from one prisoner to another.

1954

J. Phelan Tramp at Anchor 39: I began to learn the twiddle, the dairy, the cop and pass.

(US und.) to get sex (from).

1979

E. Torres After Hours 10: Cohen who used to cop drawers off Fifth Avenue whores for his fee, right on top of his desk.

see separate entry.

(US black pimp) to obtain a prostitute, to secure her to one’s stable n. (2) and to ensure that no other pimp is able to lure her away.

1972

(con. 1950s) D. Goines Whoreson 94: Some people think the game is cop and blow, but it ain’t. Its cop, lock, and block.

(US teen) to reprimand, to tell off.

1958

H. Ellison Web of the City (1983) 44: Whaddaya coppin’ low at me for?

see separate entries.

see separate entries.

to be hit.

1916		R. Service ‘The Black Dudeen’ in Rhymes of a Red Cross Man 138: Then Micky, he goes and cops one bad.
1960		N. Hilliard Maori Girl 99: Keep your hoofs to yourself or you’ll cop one smartly.

(Aus.) to get one’s deserts.

1911		E. Dyson ‘The Rivals’ in Benno and Some of the Push 159: Come ’it me now, y’ll cop yer doss in the Morgue .
1911		E. Dyson ‘The Truculent Boy’ in Benno and Some of the Push 49: G’ out, yer monkey-mugged slum mungrool, you’ll cop yer doss.

see under cross n.¹

see separate entries.

to suffer verbal abuse.

1985		Tracks (Aus.) Feb. 3: Well, you’ll be pleased to know I haven’t as yet copped any shit from the male of the species [Moore 1993].
1984		B. Ellem Doing Time qpp. C 229: One thing that I haven’t changed in respect to myself is that I won’t cop shit off them. I won’t cop shit off the screws.

(Aus.) to receive a blow.

1911

E. Dyson ‘An Amorous Boy’ in Benno and Some of the Push 177: Look ’ere, you’ll cop sock-o every time I get onter yeh playin’ handies, ’r doin’ duckie with our hemployees.

(US) of a man, to seduce a woman.

1967		P. Thomas Down These Mean Streets 23: I [...] copped girls’ drawers and blew pot.
1976		H. Selby Jr Demon (1979) 32: Who might find out if he copped her drawers and what might happen.

see under z n.¹

see also under relevant n.

(N.Z. prison) to be beaten up, attacked.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 46/1: cop the bash v. to be assaulted, beaten up.

(N.Z. prison) to receive a life sentence.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 46/1: cop the book v. to receive life imprisonment.

to get drunk.

1900		Sporting Times 5 May 2/1: Put it down twice, sir. Copping the brewer is bad enough, but what about the Brewer copping you?
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.

see take the cake v.

(Aus.) to be put at a disadvantage.

1940		Townsville Daily Bull. (Qld) 18 Apr. 9/2: This will be a God-send to Westerners who seem to ‘cop the crow’ whenever any restrictions are thought of.
1944		P. Pinney Glass Cannon (1990) 96: It’s typical: he gets out in front and stirs things up, and it’s the idiots following behind who cop the crow. But he doesn't give a brass razoo, he just laugh.
1946		Aus. Women’s Weekly 1 Dec. 2/3: ‘Copping the crow’ [...] When a new-chum joined locals in the pub it was decided who should pay for the rounds by placing slips of paper in a hat. Ostensibly one slip was marked ‘crow’, but actually all were. The game lasted as long as the new-chum fell for it.
1954		T.A.G. Hungerford Sowers of the Wind 69: ‘And what did you do to cop the crow, Nocker?’ ‘Damn all!’ the man called Nocker grunted. ‘If it was rainin' palaces I’d get hit on the head with the handle of the dunny door.’.
1970		B. Wannan Aus. Folklore 156: ‘To cop the crow’: To get ‘the worst end of the stick’, the poorest job, or the ‘lousiest deal’. It is probably connected with an old bush tale.
1984		House of Reps Weekly Hansard 3-4 1093/2: It is we who cop the crow. We are the people who continually work with Telecom’s regional managers.

(US) to receive a (heavy) punch.

1931

Dan Burley Negro World 6 June 6/1: After taking that count of nine [he] copped the duke.

(Aus.) to be dismissed from one’s employment.

2000

S. Maloney Big Ask 73: After I copped the flick from the brewery, she made me an offer.

to gain or receive everything, either positively or negatively.

1887		W.E. Henley ‘Villon’s Straight Tip’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 176: Suppose you screeve, or go cheap-jack? / [...] / How do you melt the multy swag? / Booze and the blowens cop the lot.
1898		Harrington & LeBrunn [perf. Marie Lloyd] Everything in the Garden’s Lovely 🎵 Wallop comes the painter's pot / And the dandy cops the lot.
1941		K. Tennant Battlers 296: The victim turned on the tormentors, and flung a whole tray of apricot cans at them. ‘Take my cans, would you? Here, cop the lot!’.
1949		L. Glassop Lucky Palmer 15: Looks like you’re going to cop the lot.
1960		A. Seymour One Day of the Year (1977) II iii: If he hasn’t had enough to make him sick he just gets steamed up and we’ll cop the lot.
1983		J. Byrell (con. 1959) Up the Cross 85: Frank felt the double-barrelled shotgun [...] ‘Now, you friggin’ shit [...] You’re gonna cop the lot’.
1996		Penguin Bk of More Aus. Jokes 241: When he came to a barbed-wire fence he rested the gun on the top strand and proceeded to throw his leg over. The gun was dislodged and went off. His old fellow copped the lot.

see come the raw prawn under come the... v.

see cop for v. (1)

(drugs) to buy drugs.

c.2003

D. Vrij ‘Tying Off’ on Inter-zone.org 🌐 The dawning of the true millennium 2001, found him copping up on Broadway.

(Aus.) phr. of farewell, see you soon.

2022

in D. Andrew Aussie Sl.

(Aus.) engaged in theft.

1903

Bulletin (Sydney) 10 Dec. 40/2: So nex’ day I puts ’im off, sayin’ it was gettin’ made, and tried to dror ’im about whether ’e’d ever been on the cop before. ’E swore ’e ’ad; but I could see ’e ’adn’t. ’E didn’t know the ropes, and I ’ung off ’im more than ever.

(N.Z. prison) excl. of surprise, disbelief.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 46/1: cop that! an expression of astonishment or incredulity.