Meaning & use
rap sheets
Last updated
“rap sheets” is a form of “rap sheet”. See that entry for the full set of meanings.
Meaning
nounplurallegal
Official documents listing a person's arrests, charges and convictions, kept by police or courts.
Grammar: Plural of rap sheet: each suspect had a rap sheet, so the suspects had rap sheets.
Patterns
- rap sheets of someone
- check rap sheets
Detectives pulled the rap sheets of all three suspects before the interviews.
Several applicants were turned down after employers reviewed their rap sheets.
Both men had long rap sheets stretching back to their teens.
Word forms
| singular | rap sheet |
|---|
Common combinations
- long rap sheets
- The gang members all had long rap sheets.
- clean rap sheets
- Volunteers with clean rap sheets were allowed to work with the children.
- pull rap sheets
- The prosecutor pulled rap sheets for each defendant.
- seal rap sheets
- A new law will seal old rap sheets for minor offenses.
- rap sheets show
- Their rap sheets show repeated arrests for the same crime.
Synonyms and how they differ
- criminal records
- This is the neutral, formal term and works in any country, while rap sheets is more American and informal.
- police records
- This points to who holds the information and may include non-criminal contact.
- track records
- This is a general term for past performance and is not limited to crime.
Word family
Commonly confused: rap sheets or rap songs?
rap sheets vs rap songs
Rap songs are a style of music; rap sheets are police records, and the word rap has an older slang meaning of criminal charge.
Practice
The hiring committee asked to see the applicants' ___ before offering them jobs in the bank.
Choose one answer.
Rap sheets are records of arrests and convictions, which a bank might check; the other items do not show criminal history.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “rap sheets”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.