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good cop, bad cop

good cop, bad cop is the alternative form of good cop bad cop.

Meaning of good cop bad cop

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.
    Synonyms:
    Mutt and Jeff
  2. An analogous negotiation or interrogation tactic.

Proper noun capitalized: Good Cop, Bad Cop

Good Cop, Bad Cop

  1. (alternative) Alternative form of good cop bad cop.
    • Or the two of you are playing ‘Good Cop, Bad Cop’ and you’re the Good Cop.1988, Careers and the MBA.
    • We’d take turns playing “Good Cop, Bad Cop.”2002, Anthony Asadullah Samad, Souls for Sale: The Diary of an Ex-Colored Man: Conflict and Compromise of Second-Generation Advocacy in the Post-Civil Rights Era, Kabili Press, →ISBN

Questions about good cop, bad cop

What is good cop, bad cop the alternative form of?
Good cop, bad cop is the alternative form of good cop bad cop.
What part of speech is good cop, bad cop?
Good cop, bad cop is a proper noun.

Words near good cop, bad cop in the dictionary

  1. good coin
  2. good cookie
  3. good cookies
  4. good cop
  5. good cop bad cop
  6. good cop, bad cop
  7. good cop-bad cop
  8. good cop/bad cop
  9. good cop–bad cop
  10. good day
  11. good deal

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: good cop, bad cop (page history and authors); Good Cop, Bad Cop (page history and authors); good cop bad cop (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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