to cop a feel
4
9.9
- phrasal verb
- Offensive
:
manosear
- She felt uncomfortable when he attempted to cop a feel in the crowded bar.
- trying to cop a feel
Examples
-
Go on, cop a feel.
-
Are you trying to cop a feel under the table?
-
Hey, think I might get to cop a feel?
-
Did you at least cop a feel?
-
You trying to cop a feel?
-
He's trying to cop a feel!
-
-All right, who copped a feel?
-
They say, "Did you cop a feel?"
-
EDDIE: Do you remember copping a feel?
-
Their faces were locked together, and the guy was definitely copping a feel.
Fiction book (1994)
Synonyms
127
9.9
To touch someone's private parts without their consent for sex
35
7.4
To touch someone in a sexual way without their permission
How Sexual
Surface Forms
Morphology
The verb 'cop' (slang 'to take/steal') combined with 'a feel' (a touch) yields a plausible compositional idea of 'take a touch', so learners who know the parts could infer non‑consensual touching. However, this is informal/slang with sexual and idiomatic nuance (and relies on recognizing 'feel' as a noun 'a feel'), so the exact meaning and register are not fully predictable to an average B1 learner.
Etymology
Cop a feel comes from old slang where cop means 'to take' and feel means 'a touch'. It paints the image of someone quickly taking a touch of another person's body, so it now means 'to touch someone sexually, often without permission'.