police officer
Americannoun
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any policeman or policewoman; patrolman or patrolwoman.
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a person having officer rank on a police force.
noun
Etymology
Origin of police officer
First recorded in 1790–1800
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Bradley, an even-keeled attorney and former police officer, was well positioned to bridge L.A.’s racial divides.
From Los Angeles Times • May 31, 2026
Dong Guangping, a 68-year-old former police officer, had been detained and jailed in China several times for his activism and some of his past attempts to flee the country.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 28, 2026
My friend’s sister, a retired police officer who claims to be a Christian, somehow managed to get herself appointed as the executor of their mother’s estate.
From MarketWatch • May 25, 2026
Jamie Spence, 52, from Writtle, near Chelmsford, was spotted by a police officer while sounding his horn outside Braintree station on 4 December last year.
From BBC • May 23, 2026
The police officer who’d picked them up on the river—a man named Winya, with a round belly and a thin mustache—had marched them through the quiet jasmine-lined walkways with hardly a word.
From "A Wish in the Dark" by Christina Soontornvat
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
