stakeout

American  

[steyk-out] / ˈsteɪkˌaʊt /

noun

1. the surveillance of a location by the police, as in anticipation of a crime or the arrival of a wanted person.

2. the place from which such surveillance is carried out.

3. 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.

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stakeout British  

/ ˈsteɪkaʊt /

noun

1. a police surveillance of an area, house, or criminal suspect

2. an area or house kept under such surveillance

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verb

1. (tr, adverb) to keep under surveillance

Etymology

Origin of stakeout

First recorded in 1940–45; noun use of verb phrase stake out

Example Sentences

Do we really want to incentivize vigilantes like YouTube copycat Skeet Hansen, seen in the documentary machinating and uploading his own stakeouts, pitiful farces of justice with the catchphrase “You’ve just been Skeeted”?

From Los Angeles Times

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

“We found the car he drove through a few other members that did a stakeout.”

From Salon

The music cues are refreshingly offbeat; a character whispers the “Green Acres” theme during a nighttime stakeout in a corn field, and the show reprises its fondness for the novelty songs of Roger Miller.

From New York Times

Garland is strongest with impressions: chirping birds over bloody lawns, the laconic humor of exhausted soldiers on a stakeout, a quick shot of Lee deleting some of her own photos, a private mode of self-care.

From Los Angeles Times