cop out

1. 1.

   choose not to do something, as out of fear of failing

   “She copped out when she was supposed to get into the hang glider”

   Synonymsopt out

   Broaderchoose

Questions about cop out

What does cop out mean?

cop out means "choose not to do something, as out of fear of failing".

What is another word for cop out?

Close synonyms include opt out. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is cop out a common word?

cop out is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.