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Glite Dictionary
🕵️ Not in uniform 🕵️ An undercover officer 👔 Ordinary clothing
plainclothes

plainclothes

4.4
A police officer who wears ordinary clothes to avoid being recognized
  • noun
  • /ˈpleɪnˌkloʊðz/
: policía de paisano
  • And that was when they'd put every plainclothes off so they could find in Brixton.

And that was when they'd put every plainclothes off so they could find in Brixton.

Examples

  • They gathered up just about any officer they could from any other role, put them into plainclothes and swamped Brixon.

  • INT. POLICE STATION - NIGHT # PLAINCLOTHES #

    Fiction book (1992)

  • Yeah... # PLAINCLOTHES #

    Fiction book (1995)

  • The detective worked in plainclothes to gather evidence without alarming the suspects.

  • While on duty, the officer wore plainclothes to blend in with the crowd.

  • To conduct the investigation discreetly, he operated in plainclothes throughout the neighborhood.

Synonyms

gumshoe
vsplainclothes
  • Archaic
5 8.4

A detective who works quietly and follows people to find facts

focuses on clothing to avoid recognition rather than quiet informal style
plainclothesman
vsplainclothes
1 7.9

A male police officer who wears ordinary clothes instead of a uniform while working

is gender-neutral rather than specifying male
plain clothes detective
vsplainclothes
4.1

A police officer who wears ordinary clothes while working to avoid attention

is the single-word form used to refer to that same role
plainclotheswoman
vsplainclothes
7.5

A woman police officer who wears ordinary clothes instead of a uniform while working

is gender-neutral rather than specifying female

Antonyms

uniformed
60 2.3

Wearing special clothes for work or official duty

Surface Forms

plainclothes singular
plainclothes plural

Morphology

plainclothes = plain + clothes (semi-transparent) = plain + clothes

The word clearly refers to plain clothes, but the specific institutional meaning 'police officer not in uniform' is a conventionalized extension rather than a fully literal compound meaning.

Etymology

Plainclothes as a noun comes from the words plain ('ordinary') and clothes ('clothing'), and it names a person who wears ordinary clothes instead of a uniform. That's why a plainclothes is often a police officer who wants to observe people without being noticed.