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

Word History

First Known Use

1960, in the meaning defined at sense 1