Verb

1. To capture, get hold of, take.
   • 2005, Martin Torgoff, Can't Find My Way Home, Simon & Schuster, page 10,

     Heroin appeared on the streets of our town for the first time, and Innie watched helplessly as his sixteen-year-old brother began taking the train to Harlem to cop smack.

Etymology 2

Short for , itself from above, i.e. a criminal.
Sometimes explained as deriving from copper buttons or badges of early NYPD or uniforms or on those worn by the first London Police Force of the 1820s, though this is often stated to be a folk etymology. 'Cop' has long existed as a verb meaning "to take or seize"; the first example of 'cop' taking the meaning 'to arrest' appeared in 1844, and the word swiftly moved from simply meaning 'to arrest into police custody' to encompass the individual doing the detaining. (Reference: http://www.snopes.com/language/acronyms/cop.asp Snopes Article )

Etymology 3

, , from Germanic. Cognate with Dutch , German .

Noun

1. The ball of thread wound on to the spindle in a spinning machine.
2. The top, summit, especially of a hill.
3. The head.

Verb

1. to admit, especially to a crime.

   I already copped to the murder. What else do you want from me?

2. to receive, especially blame or punishment for a particular instance of wrongdoing.

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