# policy
## English
### Pronunciation

* (UK) IPA: /ˈpɒləsi/, /ˈpɒlɪsi/
* (US) IPA: /ˈpɑləsi/
* Audio (US):(file)

### Etymology 1

From Middle English policie, from Old French policie, pollicie and police, from Late Latin politia (“citizenship; government”), classical Latin polītīa (in Cicero), from Ancient Greek πολιτεία (politeía, “citizenship; polis, (city) state; government”), from πολίτης (polítēs, “citizen”). Compare police and polity.

#### Noun

policy (countable and uncountable, plural policies)
* A principle of behaviour, conduct etc. thought to be desirable or necessary, especially as formally expressed by a government or other authoritative body and implemented by its actions. [from 15th c.]
    The Communist Party has a policy of returning power to the workers.
    It's company policy that all mobile phones are forbidden in meetings.
    Federal policy is constructed in complex ways, involving legislation, regulation, and lobbying.
* A document describing such a policy.
    Please print extra copies of this policy and post them where it will be easy for everyone to see.
* Wise or advantageous conduct; prudence, formerly also with connotations of craftiness. [from 15th c.]
** 1639, Thomas Fuller, “King Richard Taken Prisoner in Austria; Sold and Sent to the Emperour; Dearly Ransomed, Returneth Home”, in The Historie of the Holy Warre, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Thomas Buck, one of the printers to the Universitie of Cambridge [and sold by John Williams, London], →OCLC, book III, page 130:[H]e [Richard I of England] was diſcovered in an inne in Auſtria, becauſe he diſguiſed his perſon not his expenſes; ſo that the very policie of an hoſteſſe, finding his purſe ſo farre above his clothes, did detect him: […]
** 1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter XI, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volume II, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 131:These bitter accusations might have been suppressed, had I with greater policy concealed my struggles, and flattered you into the belief of my being impelled by unqualified, unalloyed inclination; […]
* (now rare) Specifically, political shrewdness or (formerly) cunning; statecraft. [from 15th c.]
** c. 1589–1590 (date written), Christopher Marlo[we], edited by Tho[mas] Heywood, The Famous Tragedy of the Rich Iew of Malta. […], London: […] I[ohn] B[eale] for Nicholas Vavasour, […], published 1633, →OCLC, Act I:I, 'policie? that's their profession, And not simplicity, as they suggest.
** 1946, Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, I.25:Whether he believed himself a god, or only took on the attributes of divinity from motives of policy, is a question for the psychologist, since the historical evidence is indecisive.
* (Scotland, now chiefly in the plural) The grounds of a large country house. [from 18th c.]
** 1775, Samuel Johnson, A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland section on Aberbrothick
    Now and then about a gentleman’s house stands a small plantation, which in Scotch is called a policy, but of these there are few, and those few all very young.
** 1886 May 1 – July 31, Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped, being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: […], London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 1886, →OCLC:There was but one thing happened worth narrating; and that is the visit I had of Robin Oig, one of the sons of the notorious Rob Roy. He was sought upon all sides on a charge of carrying a young woman from Balfron and marrying her (as was alleged) by force; yet he stepped about Balquhidder like a gentleman in his own walled policy.
** 1955, Robin Jenkins, The Cone-Gatherers, Canongate, published 2012, page 36:Next morning was so splendid that as he walked through the policies towards the mansion house despair itself was lulled.
** 1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 277, about Strachur:The house and its policies (grounds) lie between what were once two or three separate hamlets.
* (obsolete) The art of governance; political science. [14th–18th c.]
** 1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], pages 69–70:Liſt his diſcourse of Warre; and you ſhall heare / A fearefull Battaile rendred you in Muſique. / Turne him to any Cauſe of Pollicy, / The Gordian Knot of it he will vnlooſe, / Familiar as his Garter: […]
* (obsolete) A state; a polity. [14th–16th c.]
* (obsolete) A set political system; civil administration. [15th–19th c.]
* (obsolete) A trick; a stratagem. [15th–19th c.]
** c. 1588–1593 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The Most Lamentable Romaine Tragedie of Titus Andronicus: […] (First Quarto), London: […] Iohn Danter, and are to be sold by Edward White & Thomas Millington, […], published 1594, →OCLC,:Tis pollicie and ſtratageme must doo / That you affect, and ſo muſt you reſolue, / That what you cannot as you would atchiue, / You muſt perforce accompliſh as you may: […]
* (obsolete) Motive; object; inducement.
** c. 1580 (date written), Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “(please specify the folio)”, in [Fulke Greville; Matthew Gwinne; John Florio], editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London: […] [John Windet] for William Ponsonbie, published 1590, →OCLC:I pray you (said he) honest men, what such right have you in me, as not to suffer me to doe with my self what I list? and what pollicie have you to bestow a benefite where it is counted an injury?

##### Derived terms

* discretionary fiscal policy
* domestic policy
* domestic policy council
* endowment policy
* exit policy
* fiscal policy
* foreign policy
* honesty is the best policy
* Mexico City policy
* monetary policy
* one-child policy
* open door policy
* open-door policy
* ostrich policy
* policied
* policy by press release
* policy economy
* policy holder
* policy institute
* policy interest rate
* policy keyboard
* policy maker
* policymaker
* policy-making, policymaking
* policy mix
* policy pattern
* policy rate
* policy shift
* policy shop
* policy wonk
* privacy policy
* public policy
* same-origin policy
* scorched earth policy
* scorched-earth policy
* social policy
* time policy
* title policy
* umbrella policy
* valued policy
* walk policy

##### Descendants

* → Burmese: ပေါ်လစီ (paula.ci)

##### Translations
#### Verb

policy (third-person singular simple present policies, present participle policying, simple past and past participle policied)
* (transitive) To regulate by laws; to reduce to order.
** 1605, Francis Bacon, “(please specify |book=1 or 2)”, in The Twoo Bookes of Francis Bacon. Of the Proficience and Aduancement of Learning, Diuine and Humane, London: […] [Thomas Purfoot and Thomas Creede] for Henrie Tomes, […], →OCLC:Policying of cities.

### Etymology 2

From Middle French police, from Italian polizza, from Medieval Latin apodissa (“receipt for money”), from Ancient Greek ἀπόδειξις (apódeixis, “proof, declaration”). Doublet of apodixis.

#### Noun

policy (plural policies)
* (law)
** A contract of insurance.
** A document containing or certifying this contract.
    Your insurance policy covers fire and theft only.
* (obsolete) An illegal daily lottery in late nineteenth and early twentieth century USA on numbers drawn from a lottery wheel (no plural)
* A number pool lottery

##### Synonyms

* (number pool) policy racket

##### Derived terms

* policyholder

##### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### Further reading

* policy on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
* “policy”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
* William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “policy”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
* policy in Britannica Dictionary
* policy in Macmillan Collocations Dictionary
* policy in Sentence collocations by Cambridge Dictionary
* policy in Ozdic collocation dictionary
* policy in WordReference English Collocations