stakeout
the surveillance of a location by the police, as in anticipation of a crime or the arrival of a wanted person.
the place from which such surveillance is carried out.
something that is bounded or separated by or as if by stakes, especially property, territory, or the like that one identifies or claims as one's own.
Origin of stakeout
1Words Nearby stakeout
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use stakeout in a sentence
On July 6, the dimly lit downtown location of Morton’s The Steakhouse chain became a protest stakeout.
The team did stakeouts while the unsuspecting neighborhood slept.
Operation Fox Hunt: How China Exports Repression Using a Network of Spies Hidden in Plain Sight | by Sebastian Rotella and Kirsten Berg | July 22, 2021 | ProPublicaAfter a short stakeout, police nabbed Kid Riviera at a South Side apartment building.
These stakeouts lasted four hours on average, although they could run as long as 30 hours.
Wolves use ambush tactics to hunt unsuspecting beavers | Kate Baggaley | February 12, 2021 | Popular-ScienceWhen you're a reporter it's a stakeout; when you're a blogger, it's just stalking.
It's your first time with this stakeout business, that's all.
Sight Gag | Laurence Mark Janifer
British Dictionary definitions for stakeout
/ (ˈsteɪkaʊt) slang, mainly US and Canadian /
a police surveillance of an area, house, or criminal suspect
an area or house kept under such surveillance
(tr, adverb) to keep under surveillance
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Other Idioms and Phrases with stakeout
Keep an area or person under police surveillance; also, assign someone to conduct such a surveillance. For example, They staked out the house, or He was staked out in the alley, watching for drug dealers. [c. 1940]
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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