Meanings
plural bent coppers
- UKinformalgovernmentA corrupt police officer.
He had always been a bent copper. He had joined the police force with the intention of being a bent copper. In that, he had been eminently successful.
2019, Alan Jacobs, Me? I Kill People, Troubador Publishing, →ISBN, page 2982 more examples
Onay remembered that he had placed 40 kilos at the bottom of his wardrobe. That meant approximately three and a half kilos had disappeared during the police raid. Bulent kept quiet but the officers eventually found out and a bent copper was later blamed for the alleged theft.
2007, Graham Johnson, Druglord, Mainstream Publishing, →ISBNAnticorruption is a double-edged sword. We need to find just enough bent coppers to avoid accusations of a cover-up, but not so many that the public starts to wonder if the police can be trusted.
2016 April 28, “Getting to the Truth”, in Line of Duty, season 3, episode 6, spoken by Gill Biggeloe (Polly Walker), archived from the original on 17 May 2021
Origin
From bent (“not straight, corrupt, dishonest”) + copper (“policeman”), a variant of cop. It could also be a pun taken from a bent copper coin.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
bent copper. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bent%20copper
“bent copper.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bent%20copper. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “bent copper,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bent%20copper.
Source: bent copper on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.