radar detector

noun

plural radar detectors

1

: a device designed to alert the operator of a vehicle when it has been targeted by a radar beam (as from a police officer's radar gun)

After fastening a radar detector to the windshield, he slaloms through traffic at illegal speeds for the seven-mile trip to Chrysler's Styling Dome …

—Alex Taylor III

He chuckled about the radar detector in his big station wagon … saying he never drove faster than 60 anyway.

—Stephan Wilkinson

2

: radar gun

The officer's radar detector recorded the vehicle speed between 55 and 60 mph, with the speed reaching 70 mph at one point on the 55 mph-limit roadway.

—Robin Baumgarn

Examples of radar detector in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The team’s radar detectors were designed to measure the waves bouncing off the ionosphere’s E layer, a region 100 kilometers up. —Byjonathan O’Callaghan, science.org, 12 May 2023

Aftermarket parts like an Alpine stereo linked with amplifiers and a subwoofer live in the trunk, and a Viper radar detector has been added to ward off any unwanted attention. —Jack Fitzgerald, Car and Driver, 26 Apr. 2023

Now, not every alert your radar detector displays is a cop. —Collin Morgan, Car and Driver, 30 Nov. 2022

Word History

First Known Use

1960, in the meaning defined at sense 1