"fair cop" meaning in All languages combined

See fair cop on Wiktionary

Noun [English]

Forms: fair cops [plural]
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”). Etymology templates: {{glossary|Compound}} Compound, {{compound+|en|fair|cop|t1=just, correct|t2=capture, arrest}} Compound of fair (“just, correct”) + cop (“capture, arrest”), {{sup|7}} ⁷, {{sup|2}} ², {{cog|sco|cap|t=seize, take by force}} Scots cap (“seize, take by force”) Head templates: {{en-noun}} fair cop (plural fair cops)
  1. A justifiable or reasonable capture or apprehension; also, broadly, a just or inescapable accusation. Related terms: bang to rights
    Sense id: en-fair_cop-en-noun-Ckc5GCaX Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries

Inflected forms

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "Compound"
      },
      "expansion": "Compound",
      "name": "glossary"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "fair",
        "3": "cop",
        "t1": "just, correct",
        "t2": "capture, arrest"
      },
      "expansion": "Compound of fair (“just, correct”) + cop (“capture, arrest”)",
      "name": "compound+"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "7"
      },
      "expansion": "⁷",
      "name": "sup"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "2"
      },
      "expansion": "²",
      "name": "sup"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "sco",
        "2": "cap",
        "t": "seize, take by force"
      },
      "expansion": "Scots cap (“seize, take by force”)",
      "name": "cog"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "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”).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "fair cops",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "fair cop (plural fair cops)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1891, Montagu Stephen Williams, Later Leaves: Being the Further Reminiscences of Montagu Williams, Q. C., Macmillan and Co.:",
          "text": "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.”",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1900, William Pett Ridge, A Breaker of Laws, Harper & Brothers:",
          "text": "‘A fair cop,’ murmured Ladd feebly. ‘I give in, mister; it’s a fair cop.’",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1919, George Bernard Shaw, Heartbreak House, Great Catherine, and Playlets of the War, Brentano's:",
          "text": "hector. No, by thunder! It was not a fair cop. We were four to one.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1969 November 23, “Crunchy Frog”, in Monty Python's Flying Circus, season 1, episode 6:",
          "text": "Inspector: I shall have to ask you to accompany me to the station.\nMr. Hilton: It’s a fair cop.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1999, Diana Gabaldon, The Outlandish Companion, Delacorte Press:",
          "text": "Okay, it’s a fair cop. Claire’s not a Bible scholar, and neither am I. It wasn’t Gideon, it was Jephthah (Judges 12).",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2024 April 17, “Rural railways: do they deliver?”, in RAIL, number 1007, page 57:",
          "text": "The chap opposite seems to be trying to pull a fast one, and having seen the guard is trying to buy a ticket online... but doesn't succeed. The guard helpfully sells him one, but not quite at the price of one purchased in advance. In fairness he doesn't kick off, nor does the guard treat him like some common criminal. It's a fair cop - or should that be a fare cop?",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A justifiable or reasonable capture or apprehension; also, broadly, a just or inescapable accusation."
      ],
      "id": "en-fair_cop-en-noun-Ckc5GCaX",
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "bang to rights"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "fair cop"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "Compound"
      },
      "expansion": "Compound",
      "name": "glossary"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "fair",
        "3": "cop",
        "t1": "just, correct",
        "t2": "capture, arrest"
      },
      "expansion": "Compound of fair (“just, correct”) + cop (“capture, arrest”)",
      "name": "compound+"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "7"
      },
      "expansion": "⁷",
      "name": "sup"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "2"
      },
      "expansion": "²",
      "name": "sup"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "sco",
        "2": "cap",
        "t": "seize, take by force"
      },
      "expansion": "Scots cap (“seize, take by force”)",
      "name": "cog"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "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”).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "fair cops",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "fair cop (plural fair cops)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "bang to rights"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English compound terms",
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1891, Montagu Stephen Williams, Later Leaves: Being the Further Reminiscences of Montagu Williams, Q. C., Macmillan and Co.:",
          "text": "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.”",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1900, William Pett Ridge, A Breaker of Laws, Harper & Brothers:",
          "text": "‘A fair cop,’ murmured Ladd feebly. ‘I give in, mister; it’s a fair cop.’",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1919, George Bernard Shaw, Heartbreak House, Great Catherine, and Playlets of the War, Brentano's:",
          "text": "hector. No, by thunder! It was not a fair cop. We were four to one.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1969 November 23, “Crunchy Frog”, in Monty Python's Flying Circus, season 1, episode 6:",
          "text": "Inspector: I shall have to ask you to accompany me to the station.\nMr. Hilton: It’s a fair cop.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1999, Diana Gabaldon, The Outlandish Companion, Delacorte Press:",
          "text": "Okay, it’s a fair cop. Claire’s not a Bible scholar, and neither am I. It wasn’t Gideon, it was Jephthah (Judges 12).",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2024 April 17, “Rural railways: do they deliver?”, in RAIL, number 1007, page 57:",
          "text": "The chap opposite seems to be trying to pull a fast one, and having seen the guard is trying to buy a ticket online... but doesn't succeed. The guard helpfully sells him one, but not quite at the price of one purchased in advance. In fairness he doesn't kick off, nor does the guard treat him like some common criminal. It's a fair cop - or should that be a fare cop?",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A justifiable or reasonable capture or apprehension; also, broadly, a just or inescapable accusation."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "fair cop"
}

Download raw JSONL data for fair cop meaning in All languages combined (3.2kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-15 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (8a39820 and 4401a4c). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.