noun ·2 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   The act of watching a location or people, generally covertly.

   "The police had a stakeout in place where they expected the crime to occur."

2. 2
   surveillance of some place or some person by the police (as in anticipation of a crime) wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

buggingcloak-and-dagger workcounterespionagecounterintelligenceelectronic surveillanceespial

Example

More examples

"We learned from the stakeout that she leaves her classroom unlocked after third period while she goes to the bathroom."

Etymology

Deverbal from stake out.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.