plain clothes detective
- noun
- /pleɪn kloʊðz dɪˈtɛktɪv/
:
detective de civil
- When a robbery was reported, a plain clothes detective arrived to investigate without revealing his identity.
Examples
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The plain clothes detective blended in with the crowd to monitor suspicious behavior at the festival.
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- Hmm, well seeing as you're being transferred to plain clothes detectives division tomorrow, you might be instrumental in finding her murderer.
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The plain clothes detective quietly observed the scene to gather evidence without alarming the suspects.
Synonyms
∞
2.7
A police officer who investigates crimes and finds out what happened
27
2.7
A police officer who investigates crimes and collects evidence
5
8.4
A detective who works quietly and follows people to find facts
A police officer who wears ordinary clothes to avoid being recognized
Antonyms
How Visible
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase literally combines 'plain' (ordinary) and 'clothes' (wearing) with 'detective', so a learner who knows the constituent words can infer it means a detective wearing ordinary clothes instead of a uniform. This compositional pattern is common cross-linguistically and follows straightforward English noun-modifier rules, making the meaning immediately accessible to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Plain clothes detective comes from police who wore plain clothes instead of a uniform so the detective would not stand out in a crowd. That's why it means 'a police officer who works in regular clothes to avoid attention'.