re: #96 erik_t
If I, as a non-expert on police regalia, saw someone dressed like a police officer but that I later found was not an actual cop, I would likely describe their dress as ‘similar to that worn by a police officer’. It would be my assumption that they didn’t actually have a real uniform, and this would influence my language.
It’s hard to put an upper bound on the definition of the word ‘similar’. I don’t think you can draw an exact conclusion from this one way or the other.
Agreed. It might have been a real uniform but it wasn’t that long ago that plastic badges, fake caps, and flashing “police” lights were available in novelty shops along with the plastic dog poop.