Meanings
plural policemen
- governmentA police officer, usually a male.
Still agitated, she watched resentfully as two traffic policemen remounted their motorcycles.
2000, JG Ballard, Super-Cannes, Fourth Estate, published 2011, page 3782 more examples
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.
1941, George Orwell, The Lion and the Unicorn, Pt. IMeanwhile 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.
1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 19, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLCSynonyms: police officer
- chemistryA glass rod capped at one end with rubber, used in a chemistry laboratory for gravimetric analysis.
Synonyms: rubber policeman
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA police officer, usually a male.
nounA glass rod capped at one end with rubber, used in a chemistry laboratory for gravimetric analysis.
nounSynonym of enforcer.
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*tpelH-
- Proto-Hellenic*ptólis
- Ancient Greekπόλις (pólis)
- Ancient Greekπολῑ́της (polī́tēs)
- Ancient Greekπολῑτείᾱ (polīteíā)
- Latinpolitia
- Middle Frenchpolice
- Englishpolice
- Proto-Indo-European*mon-
- Proto-Germanic*mann-
- Proto-West Germanic*mann
- Old Englishmann
- Middle Englishman
- Englishpoliceman
Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
policeman. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/policeman
“policeman.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/policeman. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “policeman,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/policeman.
Source: policeman on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.