stakeout
Americannoun
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the surveillance of a location by the police, as in anticipation of a crime or the arrival of a wanted person.
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the place from which such surveillance is carried out.
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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.
noun
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a police surveillance of an area, house, or criminal suspect
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an area or house kept under such surveillance
verb
Etymology
Origin of stakeout
First recorded in 1940–45; noun use of verb phrase stake out
Explanation
When police officers watch a suspect's house, keeping an eye on who's coming and going, they call it a stakeout. Most stakeouts are done stealthily, with the officers trying to avoid being seen. Detectives on a stakeout often spend long hours sitting in an unmarked police car, watching a house or building. The stakeout might, for example, be used to prove that a suspect who claims to need a wheelchair can actually to walk, or that two people who say they've never met each other are actually close friends. The word comes from the stake that a surveyor uses to mark off a piece of land, and it's been around since the 1940's.
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.
This was a long time for a routine safety stakeout.
From Slate ● Oct. 27, 2025
French media published a photo from the police stakeout, which shows several of the men having coffee and chatting at a Parisian café that winter, just before their arrest.
From BBC ● Apr. 27, 2025
An abandoned WeWork office — the perfect place for a stakeout — and a running gag about using sitcom names as aliases bring to mind the anti-corporate glint of “Fight Club.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 19, 2023
In one scene, during a stakeout, Stoppard makes an excuse about having a dentist appointment to get a drink and get away from his partner.
From Salon ● Sep. 16, 2022
I don’t tell them about sneaking out of the house on Halloween or about our stakeout.
From "How to Disappear Completely" by Ali Standish
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.
