cop out1
informal Avoid doing something that one ought to do: he would not cop out of the difficult tax decisions...
- Ultimately, the plot cops out and an easy solution is pasted on to avoid confusion.
- Rather than face criticism, Fisk cops out by vilifying his critics as ‘haters’ who indulge in right-wing demagoguery.
- And, without giving anything away, Lucas totally cops out of the one truly disturbing moment the movie could have had.
Synonyms
avoid, shirk, skip, dodge, sidestep, skirt round, bypass, steer clear of, evade, escape, run away from, shrink from, slide out of, back out of, pull out of, turn one's back on
informal duck, duck out of, wriggle out of, get out of
British informal skive, skive off, funk
North American informal cut
Australian/New Zealand informal duck-shove
archaic decline, bilk
See parent entry: cop
cop-out2
/ˈkɒpaʊt
/noun informal
An instance of avoiding a commitment or responsibility: the government’s green paper is a complete cop-out some parents fudge the issue by saying that the grandparent has gone away for a little while, but this kind of cop-out is likely to undermine their credibility...
- But there's no point in saying that it's nothing to do with me - that just sounds like a complete cop-out.
- It lacked the raw, grittiness of the novel and the ending was a complete cop-out.
- The revelation, when it comes, is as provocative a cop-out as you are likely to see, but so bizarre that you don't immediately notice that it isn't making a whole lot of sense.
Synonyms
excuse, pretext, ostensible reason, pretence, front, cover, cover-up, subterfuge, fabrication, evasion, escape