policeman

See also: police man

English

A German policeman

Etymology

From police +‎ -man.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pəˈliːsmən/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: po‧lice‧man

Noun

policeman (plural policemen)

2. (law enforcement) A male police officer, sometimes used for any police officer regardless of gender.
   • 1941, George Orwell, The Lion and the Unicorn, Pt. I:

     The policeman who arrests the "Red" does not understand the theories the "Red" is preaching; if he did, his own position as bodyguard of the monied class might seem less pleasant to him.

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 19, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

     Meanwhile Nanny Broome was recovering from her initial panic and seemed anxious to make up for any kudos she might have lost, by exerting her personality to the utmost. She took the policeman's helmet and placed it on a chair, and unfolded his tunic to shake it and fold it up again for him.

   • 2000, JG Ballard, Super-Cannes, Fourth Estate, published 2011, page 378:

     Still agitated, she watched resentfully as two traffic policemen remounted their motorcycles.

3. (chemistry) A glass rod capped at one end with rubber, used in a chemistry laboratory for gravimetric analysis.
4. (entomology) Any skipper of the genus Coeliades.
5. (ice hockey) Synonym of enforcer
   • 2002, P. J. Harari, Dave Ominsky, Ice Hockey Made Simple: A Spectator's Guide, page 26:

     A team may have a policeman or enforcer.

Synonyms

• (member of a police force): See Thesaurus:police officer
• (glass rod with rubber cap): rubber policeman

Derived terms

• community policeman
• military policeman
• policemanlike
• policemanly
• policemanship
• silent policeman
• sleeping policeman
• world policeman

 

Descendants

• → French: policeman
• → Maori: pirihimana
• → Welsh: plismon

Translations

member of a police force — see police officer

See also

• constable

Anagrams

• melanopic

French

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English policeman.

Noun

policeman m (plural policemans)

1. policeman (in Anglophone countries)
   • 1968, Serge Gainsbourg (lyrics and music), “Bonnie and Clyde”, in Initials B.B., performed by Serge Gainsbourg ft. Brigitte Bardot:

     Chaque fois qu’un policeman se fait buter […]

     Every time a policeman gets done in […]

Further reading

• “policeman”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.