gendarme
/ˈʒɒndɑːm
/ /ʒɑ̃daʀm/noun
1A paramilitary police officer in France and other French-speaking countries: he was hauled off by a gendarme to the police station...
- It was also common to see the jeeps of the island's French gendarmes (military police) speeding by on the road loaded down with confiscated marijuana plants in the back.
- There are several police forces, including internal security police, gendarmes, and military police.
- Government is in the last resort the employment of armed men, of policemen, gendarmes, soldiers, prison guards, and hangmen.
2A rock pinnacle on a mountain, occupying and blocking an arête: the granite pillars and gendarmes kept the sun from warming us
Origin
Mid 16th century (originally denoting a mounted officer in the French army): French, from gens d'armes 'men of arms'. sense 1 dates from the late 18th century.