patrol.
A going of the rounds along the chain of sentinels and between the posts, by a guard, usually consisting of three or four men, to insure greater security from attacks on the outposts.
Meaning & usage
A going of the rounds along the chain of sentinels and between the posts, by a guard, usually consisting of three or four men, to insure greater security from attacks on the outposts.
Four members of the squadron were on patrol.
A movement, by a small body of troops beyond the line of outposts, to explore the country and gain intelligence of the enemy's whereabouts.
The guards who go the rounds for observation; a detachment whose duty it is to patrol.
The largest division of officers within a police department or sheriff's office, whose assignment is to patrol and respond to calls for service.
Any perambulation of a particular line or district to guard it; also, the people thus guarding.
a customs patrol
a fire patrol
A unit of a troop, usually defined by certain ranks or age groups within the troop, and ideally comprised of six to eight members.
Where this word comes from
From French patrouille, from Old French patrouille, patouille (“a night-watch”, literally “a tramping about”), from patrouiller, patouiller, patoiller (“to paddle or pudder in water, dabble with the feet, begrime, besmear”), from patte, pate (“paw, foot of an animal”), from Vulgar Latin *patta (“paw, foot”), from Frankish *patta (“paw, sole of the foot”), from Proto-Germanic *paþjaną, *paþōną (“to walk, tread, go, step, pace”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pent-, *(s)pat- (“path; to walk”), a variant of Proto-Indo-European *pent-, *pat- (“path; to go”); see find. Cognate with Dutch pad, patte (“paw”), Low German pedden (“to step, tread”), German patschen (“to splash, smack, dabble, waddle”), German Patsche (“a swatter, beater, paw, puddle, mire”). Related to pad, path.
To go the rounds along a chain of sentinels; to traverse a police district or beat.
To go the rounds of, as a sentry, guard, or policeman
to patrol a frontier
to patrol a beat
Where this word comes from
From French patrouiller, from Old French patrouiller (“to paddle, paw about, patrol”), from patte (“a paw”).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.