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Showing results for stake out. Search instead for stall+out.
Synonyms

stake out

Idioms  

  1. Keep an area or person under police surveillance; also, assign someone to conduct such a surveillance. For example, They staked out the house, or He was staked out in the alley, watching for drug dealers. [c. 1940]

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

That has prompted many in the reformist camp to stake out much bolder positions against the regime, putting them at risk.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 13, 2026

The tiny rituals help stake out a sense of ease: a truly good, no-notes dip; a bowl of warm, spiced nuts that perfumes the whole apartment the moment the door opens.

From Salon • Dec. 9, 2025

Its solution, for now, is to continually stake out middle ground when conflicts between the two branches’ agendas arise.

From Slate • May 27, 2025

His longest stake out was a nine-hour watch for a black-crowned night heron near Wakefield, which he finally saw for three or four seconds.

From BBC • Aug. 4, 2024

If I didn’t have school, I could stake out the postal box and solve the mystery of the missing letters.

From "P.S. I Miss You" by Jen Petro-Roy

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.