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fair cop

noun

Etymology

Compound of fair (“just, correct”) + cop (“capture, arrest”). Attested from the late 19th century. The cop portion is originally from Northern England and is perhaps from a regional pronunciation of the now obsolete verb cap (“to capture; to seize”). Compare Scots cap (“seize, take by force”), kep (“catch”).

  1. derived from cap — “seize, take by force”

Definitions

  1. A justifiable or reasonable capture or apprehension

    A justifiable or reasonable capture or apprehension; also, broadly, a just or inescapable accusation.

    • Several other witnesses gave corroborative evidence, and a constable who helped to arrest the prisoners stated that one of them, on being taken into custody, said: “Ah, well, this is a fair cop.”
    • ‘A fair cop,’ murmured Ladd feebly. ‘I give in, mister; it’s a fair cop.’
    • hector. No, by thunder! It was not a fair cop. We were four to one.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for fair cop. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA