POLICEMAN

Pronunciation (US): (GB):

I. (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A member of a police force

Example:

it was an accident, officer

Synonyms:

officer; police officer; policeman

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("policeman" is a kind of...):

law officer; lawman; peace officer (an officer of the law)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "policeman"):

bobby (an informal term for a British policeman)

bull; cop; copper; fuzz; pig (uncomplimentary terms for a policeman)

captain; police captain; police chief (a policeman in charge of a precinct)

constable; police constable (a police officer of the lowest rank)

detective; investigator; police detective; tec (a police officer who investigates crimes)

gendarme (a French policeman)

inspector (a high ranking police officer)

motorcycle cop; motorcycle policeman; speed cop (a policeman who rides a motorcycle (and who checks the speeds of motorists))

police matron; policewoman (a woman policeman)

Mountie (colloquial term for a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police)

shoofly (an undercover police officer who investigates other policemen)

traffic cop (a policeman who controls the flow of automobile traffic)

trooper (a mounted police officer)

state trooper; trooper (a state police officer)

Holonyms ("policeman" is a member of...):

constabulary; law; police; police force (the force of policemen and officers)

Credits

Context examples:

"You'll be singing next," was the policeman's diagnosis.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Five minutes later, three policemen had assembled in the hall.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A burly Sussex policeman and I had found it no light job.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

An instant later a white-faced, hard-breathing policeman had opened the door, the candle wavering in his trembling hand.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The policeman snapped up his notebook.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The workman took off his coat leisurely and hung it on one of the spikes of the rail, saying something to a policeman who just then sauntered along.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of revellers.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Street after street and all the folks asleep—street after street, all lighted up as if for a procession and all as empty as a church—till at last I got into that state of mind when a man listens and listens and begins to long for the sight of a policeman.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

In the middle of the bridge, and at each end, were electric lights. No policeman could pass those end-lights unseen.