A copse is a small grove or thicket of trees or shrubs. Copse comes into use in the 1570s, it is a contraction of coppice, which also dates from the fourteenth century. While copse refers to any group of trees, a coppice is a thicket grown specifically for cutting. It comes from the Old French copeiz, meaning a cut-over forest.
Cops may be 1.) the plural of cop, American slang for policeman 2.) to arrest someone 3.) to steal 4.) American slang for buying drugs. Related verb forms of cops are copped and copping. Cop is first used in the 1700s meaning to seize, catch, from the Latin capere meaning to catch. Cop evolved from a verb into a noun to refer to a policeman as a copper, one who catches. In 1859, copper was shortened into the American term, cop.
Examples
There is no current development on the property, 13605 Northeast Bel-Red Road, and it remains a copse of shady trees bordered by Northeast 14th Street on its southern edge and Kelsey Creek to the east. (The Bellevue Reporter)
A thriving silicon hub (think Seattle without the rain), it’s the home of Dell computers, the place where Real Foods was founded and still has its headquarters with a wooded copse on its roof. (The Telegraph)
Additional services to be delivered will include tree works, woodland and copse management and the undertaking of specific operations for special events such as the Chatteris Festival and the Wisbech Yule Fayre. (The Cambs Times)
But the city’s top cop, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, who doesn’t fly off the handle as easily as Lynch, said Monday he feels as much contempt as Lynch about Tarantino suggesting cops are “murderers.” (USA Today)
NYPD Commissioner slams Tarantino for calling cops murderers, ‘there are no words to describe the contempt I have for him’ (The New York Daily News)