"good cop bad cop" meaning in English

See good cop bad cop in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Head templates: {{en-noun|-}} good cop bad cop (uncountable)
  1. A psychological tactic used for interrogation, involving one police officer playing the role of intimidating adversary, and another that of friend with whom the subject is encouraged to bond. Tags: uncountable Categories (topical): Law enforcement Translations (psychological tactic): 做好做醜 /做好做丑 (zou⁶ hou² zou⁶ cau²) (Chinese Cantonese), 一個唱紅臉,一個唱白臉 (Chinese Mandarin), 一个唱红脸,一个唱白脸 (Chinese Mandarin), 红脸白脸 (Chinese Mandarin), hyvä poliisi, paha poliisi (Finnish), méchant flic, gentil flic [masculine] (French), bon flic, mauvais flic [masculine] (French), guter Bulle, böser Bulle [masculine] (German), καλός και κακός αστυφύλακας (kalós kai kakós astyfýlakas) [masculine] (Greek), dobry i zły glina [masculine] (Polish), dobry i zły policjant [masculine] (Polish), poli bueno poli malo [masculine] (Spanish)
    Sense id: en-good_cop_bad_cop-en-noun-Ypit6TIa Disambiguation of Law enforcement: 88 12 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with Cantonese translations, Terms with Finnish translations, Terms with French translations, Terms with German translations, Terms with Greek translations, Terms with Mandarin translations, Terms with Polish translations, Terms with Spanish translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 83 17 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 90 10 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 92 8 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 95 5 Disambiguation of Terms with Cantonese translations: 86 14 Disambiguation of Terms with Finnish translations: 87 13 Disambiguation of Terms with French translations: 93 7 Disambiguation of Terms with German translations: 86 14 Disambiguation of Terms with Greek translations: 75 25 Disambiguation of Terms with Mandarin translations: 75 25 Disambiguation of Terms with Polish translations: 88 12 Disambiguation of Terms with Spanish translations: 96 4 Disambiguation of 'psychological tactic': 65 35
  2. An analogous negotiation or interrogation tactic. Tags: uncountable
    Sense id: en-good_cop_bad_cop-en-noun-qyN6UWHn
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: good cop, bad cop, Good Cop, Bad Cop, good-cop, bad-cop, good cop/bad cop, Good Cop/Bad Cop, good-cop/bad-cop, good cop-bad cop, good cop–bad cop, good-cop-bad-cop, good-cop bad-cop

Alternative forms

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          "_dis1": "65 35",
          "code": "yue",
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          "roman": "zou⁶ hou² zou⁶ cau²",
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          "_dis1": "65 35",
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          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
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          "word": "一個唱紅臉,一個唱白臉"
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          "_dis1": "65 35",
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          "word": "一个唱红脸,一个唱白脸"
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          "_dis1": "65 35",
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "sense": "psychological tactic",
          "word": "红脸白脸"
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        {
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          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "psychological tactic",
          "word": "hyvä poliisi, paha poliisi"
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          "word": "méchant flic, gentil flic"
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          "_dis1": "65 35",
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          "_dis1": "65 35",
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          "sense": "psychological tactic",
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      "word": "Good Cop, Bad Cop"
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      "code": "yue",
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      "roman": "zou⁶ hou² zou⁶ cau²",
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      "word": "做好做醜 /做好做丑"
    },
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      "code": "cmn",
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      "sense": "psychological tactic",
      "word": "一個唱紅臉,一個唱白臉"
    },
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      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "psychological tactic",
      "word": "一个唱红脸,一个唱白脸"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "psychological tactic",
      "word": "红脸白脸"
    },
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      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "psychological tactic",
      "word": "hyvä poliisi, paha poliisi"
    },
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      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "psychological tactic",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "méchant flic, gentil flic"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "psychological tactic",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "bon flic, mauvais flic"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "psychological tactic",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "guter Bulle, böser Bulle"
    },
    {
      "code": "el",
      "lang": "Greek",
      "roman": "kalós kai kakós astyfýlakas",
      "sense": "psychological tactic",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "καλός και κακός αστυφύλακας"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "psychological tactic",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "dobry i zły glina"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "psychological tactic",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "dobry i zły policjant"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "psychological tactic",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "poli bueno poli malo"
    }
  ],
  "word": "good cop bad cop"
}

Download raw JSONL data for good cop bad cop meaning in English (3.1kB)

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  "path": [
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  "section": "English",
  "subsection": "noun",
  "title": "good cop bad cop",
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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-25 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-20 using wiktextract (c15a5ce and 5c11237). 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.