policeman

noun

po·​lice·​man pə-ˈlēs-mən 

1

: a member of a police force

2

: one held to resemble a policeman

making the United States the policeman for the whole wide world

—R. B. Long

Synonyms

• bobby [British]
• bull [slang]
• constable [chiefly British]
• cop
• copper
• flatfoot [slang]
• fuzz
• gendarme
• lawman
• officer
• police officer
• shamus [slang]

Examples of policeman in a Sentence

reported the crime to the nearest policeman

Recent Examples on the Web

Procrastinating his one shopping task until the 11th hour, Howard spends Christmas Eve on a zany citywide hunt for the impossible-to-find Turbo Man action figure his son (Jake Lloyd) wants — and no amount of mall Santas, policemen or rival dads (Sinbad) can get in his way. —Skyler Caruso, People.com, 19 Dec. 2024

A day later, the militants detonated a car bomb near a police station in Jenin, wounding three Palestinian policemen and two civilians. —Barak Ravid, Axios, 15 Dec. 2024

The Towering Inferno reportedly inspired writer Roderick Thorp to write the 1979 book Nothing Lasts Forever, who changed the story to a single policeman fighting terrorists. —Marc Berman, Forbes, 14 Dec. 2024

By that time, a patrol car had arrived with two policemen. —Yukio Mishima, The New Yorker, 27 Oct. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1788, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

policeman

noun

po·​lice·​man pə-ˈlē-smən 

: police officer

Medical Definition

policeman

noun

po·​lice·​man pə-ˈlēs-mən 

plural policemen -mən 

: an instrument (as a flat piece of rubber on a glass rod) for removing solids from a vessel (as a beaker)