cardboard cop
n.— «South Yorkshire Police want to increase the numbers of police community support officers…, commonly known as “cardboard cops” or “plastic police” within the service.» —“‘Real police’ jobs could be cut to fund more support officers” by Paul Whitehouse Yorkshire Post (U.K.) Dec. 10, 2005. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
What if, instead of being an inanimate object, a dictionary were alive? That’s the idea behind a lavishly illustrated new children’s book called The Dictionary Story (Bookshop|Amazon) by Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston. This is part of a...
Asthenosphere, a geologist’s term for the molten layer beneath the earth’s crust, sparks a journey that stretches all the way from ancient Greece to the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Plus: What the heck is a dogberg? It’s when...