Word.ws English Dictionary

copping on

copping on is the present participle and gerund of cop on.

Meaning of cop on

Verb

cop on (third-person singular simple present cops on, present participle copping on, simple past and past participle copped on)

  1. (Ireland, idiomatic, informal) To stop behaving immaturely; behave, grow up.
    • You'll get in trouble with the boss if you don't cop on.
  2. (Ireland, UK, dialectal, informal) To come to understand; twig, cotton on.

See all 3 meanings of cop on

Questions about copping on

What is copping on the present participle and gerund of?
Copping on is the present participle and gerund of cop on.

Words near copping on in the dictionary

  1. copping a feel
  2. copping a load of
  3. copping a plea
  4. copping off
  5. copping off with
  6. copping on
  7. copping one's whack
  8. copping oneself on
  9. copping onto
  10. copping out
  11. copping the needle

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: copping on (page history and authors); cop on (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “copping on.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/copping_on. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.