cop the needle

verb

To grow annoyed.

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Meanings

verbcop the needle (third-person singular simple present cops the needle, present participle copping the needle, simple past and past participle copped the needle)

present singular third person cops the needle · participle present copping the needle · participle past copped the needle · past copped the needle

  1. UKslangTo grow annoyed.

    It must have been the way I said it because he copped the needle and sneered, 'I haven't got to talk to you about fuck-all. Whatever I do is none of your Goddamn business.'

    1999, Roy Shaw with Kate Kray, “Nick-Knack-Paddy-Whack”, in Pretty Boy, London: Blake Publishing Ltd, →ISBN, page 82
Cite this entry
APA

cop the needle. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cop%20the%20needle

MLA

“cop the needle.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cop%20the%20needle. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “cop the needle,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cop%20the%20needle.

Source: cop the needle on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.