copout/cop-out

Zoobiquityを読んでいます。
The model of substance addiction as a brain disease made sense to me, but until recently, applying the term "addiction" to behaviors seemed sloppy--a "no-fault," feel-good copout, a lazy, twentieth-century inability to break bad habits.
It's not me, Your Honor. It's my disease.
上に出てきた "copout" はこの後にも次の個所に出て来ました。
He notes that learning, along with behaviors such as gambling, shopping, and sex, "evoke neural signals that converge on a small group of interconnected brain areas called the medial forebrain pleasure circuit." Successful dog training creates what we could call a learning addiction, driven by pleasure circuits. Linden notes that these circuits "can also be co-opted by artificial activators like cocaine or nicotine or heroin or alcohol."
"copout" を辞書で調べます。
・Cambridge English Dictionary: to avoid doing something that you should do or that you have promised to do because you are frightened, shy, or you think it is too difficult: She copped out of the parachute jump at the last minute with some feeble excuse.
・Wiktionary: An excuse made in order to avoid performing a task or duty; a reason offered when someone cops out. It was a cop-out to say he couldn't sign the petition because he sprained his wrist.