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: a law-enforcement officer (such as a sheriff or marshal)
Synonyms
Examples of lawman in a Sentence
Wyatt Earp was a famous American lawman of the Wild West.
as the rural county's chief lawman, the sheriff has to patrol a vast area with only minimal manpower
Recent Examples on the Web
And the man responsible for it was the top lawman in the area — Barry County Sheriff Dar Leaf.
—Rich Schapiro, NBC News, 3 Nov. 2024
In the time this took, and despite the lawmen’s exhaustive searching, the culprit got away.
—Katy Roberts, Washington Post, 29 July 2024
For our story about a Texas lawman’s two-year quest to criminally charge school librarians over the books on their shelves, Tyler Kingkade and I obtained the officer’s 821-page investigative file and videos of his attempts to question librarians.
—Kaylah Jackson, NBC News, 24 July 2024
Mayor Karen Bass selects longtime lawman Jim McDonnell as L.A.’s next police chief
In selecting McDonnell, Bass is getting a steady hand as the massive security challenges of the World Cup and the Olympic Games loom on the horizon.
—Hunter Clauss, Los Angeles Times, 5 Oct. 2024
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Word History
First Known Use
1944, in the meaning defined above
Dictionary Entries Near lawman
Cite this Entry
“Lawman.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lawman. Accessed 28 Nov. 2024.
Kids Definition
lawman
noun
law·man
ˈlȯ-mən
: a law-enforcement officer (as a sheriff or marshal)
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