To regularly walk or travel around an area to watch for problems or keep it safe.
From the French 'patrouille,' originally meaning a unit of soldiers walking guard duty. It entered English in the 1600s from military contexts and expanded to include any kind of protective walking around an area.
The word 'patrol' comes from a French word meaning a group of soldiers, but we now use 'patrol' as both a noun (the patrol car) and a verb (they patrol the streets), showing how English loves to recycle words across parts of speech!
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