plain clothes
9
3.2
- noun
- /pleɪn kloʊðz/
- Adam Styler, plain-clothes cop, works narcotics in Queens.
- a man in plain clothes
- plain-clothes officers
- wearing plain clothes
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Watch on YouTubeI'm going to wear plain clothes, plain white T-shirt, jeans.
- I'm going to wear plain clothes, plain white T-shirt, jeans.
- And how can we change things, be it having them in plain clothes or, you know, or maybe having to do more outreach to those communities?
- And we were looking at this one place and they have plain clothes just like guards now with guns.
Examples
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I say again, there's a plain-clothes officer in the building!
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The police officer was working in plain clothes to blend in with the crowd.
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What are you doing in plain clothes?
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The police were in plain clothes.
Blog text (34) -
Two men in plain clothes claiming to be police officers came to the victim's door.
Blog text (2) -
Detective Derm, 46, stands outside in plain clothes.
Fiction book (2000) -
An hour later, the door opened again and a tall man in plain clothes, whose face had been cut from a series of acute angles, entered.
Fiction book (2002) -
In the room at the police station, there was an inspector in plain clothes, a man of about forty years of age, slightly bald, with hard eyes.
Fiction book (2001) -
Cunningham was just glad he wore plain clothes and not a uniform and worked in Oxnard right now instead of L.A.
Fiction book (1993) -
Lena, the waitress, sits next to the plain-clothes cop who holds the indent-a-kit.
Fiction book (1991)
Synonyms
8
1.8
Everyday clothes you wear in public, not a uniform
8
2.0
Clothes that people who are not in the military or police wear
1
4.4
Ordinary clothes worn instead of a uniform to avoid being recognized as a police officer
1
3.6
Ordinary clothes worn by people who are not soldiers, police, or religious leaders
1
4.2
Everyday clothes that are not uniforms or work clothes
Antonyms
How Formal
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'ordinary clothing' is directly composed from 'plain' (simple, unembellished) + 'clothes' (wearable items), so a B1 learner who knows both words will readily infer the phrase refers to non‑special/ordinary dress. The specific pragmatic use for people who normally wear uniforms (e.g., police 'in plain clothes') is a predictable extension of 'plain' meaning 'not uniform' and thus does not make the expression idiomatic.
Etymology
Plain clothes comes from the idea that someone who usually wears a uniform puts on simple plain clothes so they do not stand out. That's why the term means 'ordinary clothing' worn by police or soldiers 'to blend in'.