on the beat
10
5.5
- idiom
- Literature
:
de patrulla (policía)
- The experienced journalist was finally back on the beat covering local events after a long break.
- cop on the beat
- officer on the beat
- reporter on the beat
Oh, Rich is now back on the beat.
- Oh, Rich is now back on the beat.
- You know, I just thought I'd be more of a grizzled shoe leather reporter on the beat in the field, breaking news.
- I don't think that simply paying police officers more or recruiting a lot more officers on the beat is the answer to the problem.
- You could buy, have a lot more cops on the beat, pay cops more and, you know, arm them and so on.
Examples
-
You know, I'm gonna sleep a lot better at night knowing that a cop like you is back on the beat.
-
But that's life in the precinct, life on the beat.
-
I guess I just like being a cop on the beat.
-
You want to stay on the beat?
-
We were still the only cop on the beat.
Academic text (1994) -
An honest policeman came on the beat.
-
The Riverton Police Department has a new cop on the beat.
-
This is Officer O'Hara, the new man on the beat.
-
They gave us a schedule of all the squad cars on the beat.
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Regular reporters on the beat are occasionally granted off-the-record interviews.
Academic text (2000)
Synonyms
222
2.7
At work doing your job
30
4.2
While doing your job, especially in police, military, or other official work
Antonyms
How Active
64
3.5
- Literature
10
5.5
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning for the police sense is directly derivable from 'on' (in or at) + 'beat' (patrol route), so a B1 learner who knows those words will understand 'on the beat' as being on one's patrol or assigned area. However, the expression is extended metaphorically to other jobs (e.g. a journalist's 'beat'), which requires knowledge of the specialized sense of 'beat' and thus is not fully predictable without prior exposure.
Etymology
The expression on the beat comes from old police work, when an officer walked a fixed path called a beat through an area. Reporters later used the same idea when they 'covered' an area, so today on the beat means 'actively working in your assigned area'.