cop the needle

[steve47n]

can anyone tell me the origin of the saying " COP THE NEEDLE"

[Quizmonster]

'Cop' often means to 'get' as in "I always cop the blame!" The needle in this case, I imagine, is the one used in the USA to carry out an execution by lethal injection. Hence, 'to cop the needle' is to be thus sentenced to death.

[nirvanafarma]

Rubbish Quizzymon, that saying was in use long before Lethal Injection was being carried out. It might mean the POW's in wars were forced into donating blood and organs.

[abbo]

I'm 46 years old and hail from Portsmouth where this saying is/used to be in widespread use. 
As I don't know the exact geographical spread of usage for this saying this is just a theory.  I�m also just as eager to discover the precise meaning of this saying as anyone else, but here goes. 
If you go for a tour on HMS Victory, the guides will tell you that due to the desperately hard life of a 19th Century sailor, sailors would often feign death instead of simply deserting. This meant they would be buried at sea by being sewn into a canvas body bag. The sailor�s plan was to conceal a knife and cut themselves free when they hit the water. In order to negate this practice, the powers that be ordered that when they were sewn in, the final stitch was to be put through the unfortunate sailors nose. Hence �cop the needle�.