Definition of stakeout in US English:

noun

• A period of secret surveillance of a building or an area by police in order to observe someone's activities.

  Example sentences

  • ‘Agents began to fear that he might get wise to their stake-out so they moved him to a specially-created position at FBI headquarters.’
  • ‘Wendy went to the foyer where Sheriff Marten and Deputy Craine had set up their stake-out.’
  • ‘We were shooting a scene where Jimmy and I were on a stake-out.’
  • ‘The police reacted on information they received and held a stake-out from 09: 00 outside the bank's premises, on the corners of Rissik, Loveday and Main streets.’
  • ‘Sheila had seen him several times before on previous stake-outs, and he wasn't a man to be easily reckoned with.’
  • ‘The raid was the culmination of weeks of hard intelligence-gathering, of stake-outs and investigation.’
  • ‘After a few establishing scenes, he is sent with his partner, John, on a stake-out to Cartersville, Georgia.’
  • ‘As the investigation proceeds, Dormer's instincts eventually lead the team to a stake-out of the murder suspect and they give chase.’
  • ‘He was killing time as if he were on a stake-out for a client.’
  • ‘He admitted he never took a police photographer or another officer along on his stake-outs, nor did he take a fingerprint expert to dust for print impressions at the apartment after the raid, saying it was not the practice to do so.’