plainclothesman
1
7.9
- noun
- /ˈpleɪnˌkloʊðzˌmæn/
:
policía de paisano
- The phone on someone's desk begins ringing. Jones, a plainclothesman, picks it up.
Examples
-
Notify Scotland Yard to have a plainclothesman posted... on every corner of the district.
-
INT. POLICE STATION - LATE P.M. Malcolm facing a desk sergeant, two uniformed cops, and a plainclothesman off to one side.
Fiction book (1992) -
The second plainclothesman stayed behind alone.
Fiction book (1994) -
A plainclothesman beside him said: "Please stand up and put your shoes on."
Fiction book (1994) -
"You lied to me," I would scream at the plainclothesman, ever the Irish Catholic.
Fiction book (2002) -
I crouched low at the recognition of the plainclothesman, my own Sergeant Ortega.
Fiction book (1995) -
Plainclothesman Number One shakes himself and walks off to get his nightly ice cream cone.
Fiction book (1990) -
Sarah yells out to him tauntingly, and the plainclothesman, who is licking ice cream off his wrist, looks up at her window suspiciously.
Fiction book (1990) -
The plainclothesman discreetly observed the crowd from a distance during the investigation.
-
As the plainclothesman approached the suspect, he identified himself as a police officer.
Synonyms
28
6.5
A man who works to enforce the law, like a sheriff or police officer
A police officer who wears ordinary clothes to avoid being recognized
A police officer who wears ordinary clothes while working to avoid attention
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
plainclothesman = plainclothes + man (transparent) = plain + clothes + man
The compound is formed from 'plainclothes' + 'man', and the meaning is directly inferable from those components.
Etymology
Plainclothesman comes from the parts plain ('simple' or 'ordinary'), clothes, and man. It literally means a 'man in ordinary clothes' rather than a uniform, so a plainclothesman is a police officer or detective who works in regular dress to blend in.