police lieutenant
4
3.7
- noun
- /pəˈlis luˈtɛnənt/
- US
:
teniente de policía
- A police lieutenant was promoted after demonstrating exceptional leadership during the crisis.
Examples
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And an order was passed to the police lieutenant to immediately begin fresh investigations into the murders.
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Once inside the cab, he flashed a badge and said he was a police lieutenant and had to get to the corner of California and Van Ness, where there had just been an attempted bank robbery.
Fiction book (2002) -
- Has this police lieutenant found such a person?
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But a police lieutenant says that this all the work of someone who is trying to fool us.
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A police lieutenant came to me and asked me to find out why the detective in charge wasn't making any arrests.
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Police lieutenant Ronald Habbler has publicly named a suspect in the serial killer case, and it's a shocker!
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The police lieutenant coordinated the response to the emergency situation.
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After the investigation, the police lieutenant announced the arrests in the case.
Synonyms
124
5.1
A police officer who is below a captain and leads other officers
How High Ranked
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a rank of officer in a police force' is directly compositional from 'police' (law enforcement organization) + 'lieutenant' (a junior/mid officer rank); the noun-noun combination simply specifies the domain of the rank. This is a transparent, cross-linguistically common pattern, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Police lieutenant comes from the military title lieutenant, a word that once meant someone who 'holds the place' of a higher officer. So a police lieutenant is the officer who stands just under the captain and acts as a 'second-in-command', which is why the title means a rank between sergeant and captain.