police
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: rhymes: -iːs
rhymes: (Indic also) -ɪs
enpr: pə-lēs'
ipa: /pəˈliːs/
ipa: [pʰə̆ˈliˑs]
enpr: pō'līs
note: Indic
ipa: /po.lis/
note: Indic
ipa: /ˈpolɪs/
note: Southern US, African-American Vernacular
ipa: /ˈpoʊ.liːs/
enpr: plēs'
note: sounds like please but with final /s/ instead of /z/
ipa: /ˈpl̩iːs/
Forms: form: police
Etymology: From Middle French police, from Latin polītīa (“state, government”), from Ancient Greek πολιτεία (politeía). Doublet of policy and polity.
Senses: examples: text: There are nine Principles of Police:
...
7 To maintain at all times a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and that the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen, in the interests of community welfare and existence.
ref: 1943, Charles Reith, British Police and the Democratic Ideal, pp. 3–4
text: ‘Then the father has a great fight with his terrible conscience,’ said Munday with granite seriousness. ‘Should he make a row with the police […]? Or should he say nothing about it and condone brutality for fear of appearing in the newspapers?
ref: 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 18, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
text: In the criminal justice system, the People are represented by two separate yet equally important groups: the police, who investigate crime, and the district attorneys, who prosecute the offenders.
ref: 1990 Sept. 13, David Black & al., "Prescription for Death", Law & Order, 00:00:01
text: Citadel Security is a volunteer police service answering to the Citadel Council. The 200,000 constables of C-Sec are responsible for maintaining public order in the densely populated Citadel.
ref: 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Citadel Station: Citadel Security Services (C-Sec) Codex entry:
text: The rally on Sunday in Victoria Park, in the Causeway Bay district, was authorized in advance by the police. But protesters were also expected to begin marching later in the day from Sham Shui Po, a working-class neighborhood on the Kowloon peninsula, across the harbor from North Point. The police rejected their application for a permit.
ref: 2019 August 11, Mike Ives, “Hong Kong Protesters Gather Amid Fears of Mob Violence”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 11 Aug 2019:
text: Call the police!
text: There’s only one police in this town.
ref: 2012 July 16, Jonathan, Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight Rises, spoken by Peter Foley (Matthew Modine), Warner Bros. Pictures:
topics: government
law-enforcement
glosses: A public agency charged with enforcing laws and maintaining public order, usually being granted special privileges to do so, particularly
examples: text: The Cook County Sheriff's Department has jurisdiction across most of Chicago but focuses on the unincorporated area and tasks like prisoner transport, leaving the rest to the Chicago Police Department.
topics: government
law-enforcement
glosses: A public agency charged with enforcing laws and maintaining public order, usually being granted special privileges to do so, particularly
A department of local (usually municipal) government responsible for general law enforcement.
examples: text: Scotland Yard is, technically speaking, only the metropolitan police for Greater London but because of their importance they have special jurisdiction for some crimes across the United Kingdom.
topics: government
law-enforcement
glosses: A public agency charged with enforcing laws and maintaining public order, usually being granted special privileges to do so, particularly
A branch of the Home Office responsible for general law enforcement within a specific territory.
topics: government
law-enforcement
glosses: A public agency charged with enforcing laws and maintaining public order, usually being granted special privileges to do so, particularly
Any of the formally enacted law enforcement agencies at various levels of government.
examples: text: Pearlman: Very clever, Lester. You got it all figured, huh?
Freamon: Me? I'm just a police.
ref: 2006 Sept. 17, David Mills, "Soft Eyes", The Wire, 00:06:50
text: This time it is the worst kind of call a murder police can get.
ref: 2006, David Simon, Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, →ISBN, page 440:
glosses: The staff of such a department or agency, particularly its officers; (regional, chiefly US, Caribbean, Jamaica, Scotland, countable) an individual police officer.
examples: text: Who called the fashion police?
text: Then there were the taste police, who thought that this bulky modern machine was an inappropriate intrusion […]
ref: 2010, Mary Beard, It's a Don's Life, →ISBN, page 147:
text: A major drama has broken out in France after the local language police decreed one of their cute little accents to be largely redundant
ref: 2016 February 5, “How the circumflex became France's bête noire”, in The Guardian:
glosses: People who try to enforce norms or standards as if granted authority similar to the police.
examples: text: Q. […] What did you do that day? — A. I was cleaning up around quarters.
Q. You had been on guard and went on police duty? You were policing, cleaning up around the barracks? — A. Yes, sir.
ref: 1907, Hearings Before the Committee on Military Affairs, United States Senate, concerning the Affray at Brownsville, Tex. on the Night of August 13 and 14, 1906, volume 2:
topics: government
military
politics
war
glosses: Cleanup of a military facility, as a formal duty.
examples: text: The notion of ‘police’ – that is, rational administration – was seen as a historical force which could bring civilized improvement to societies.
ref: 2002, Colin Jones, The Greta Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 218:
glosses: Synonym of administration, the regulation of a community or society.
synonyms: word: administration
extra: the regulation of a community or society
glosses: Alternative form of policy.
glosses: Alternative form of polity, civilization, a regulated community.
Synonyms: sense: law enforcement officers
word: police officer
word: 5-O
word: Babylon
word: bacon
word: Big Blue Machine
word: Bill
word: boydem
word: constabulary
word: dibble
word: donut patrol
word: ducks and geese
word: ecilop
word: esclop
word: feds
word: filth
word: five-o
word: fuzz
word: garda
word: gardai
word: gendarmerie
word: heat
word: law
word: monarch
word: Old Bill
word: piglice
word: plod
word: po-po
word: police
word: police department
word: police force
word: police service
word: polis
word: thin blue line
word: any plural synonym of police officer
Hyponyms: word: Gardai
word: LAPD
word: Met
word: NYPD
word: RCMP
word: Scotland Yard
word: Sûreté
word: CID
word: CSI
word: flying squad
word: SOCO
word: Special Branch
word: SWAT
Meronyms: word: police officer
word: police vehicle
word: charpering carsey
word: cop shop
word: nick
word: police station
word: precinct
Derived terms: antipolice
armed police
call the police
chief of police
community police officer
counterpolice
cyberpolice
depolice
fanpol
fashion police
field police
fire police
FTP
fuck the police
fun police
grammar police
haram police
identity police
I'll call the police
Interpol
judicial police
language police
military police
morality police
moral police
mounted police
nonpolice
overpolice
parapolice
pawlice
piglice
polac
POLAC
policeable
police action
police ambulance
police and thief
police barrier
police beat
police blotter
policeboat
police box
police boy
police brutality
police burgh
police captain
police car
police chief
police clearance certificate
police commissioner
police constable
police court
police department
police detective
police dog
policedom
police escort
police force
policeism
police jury
policeless
police lieutenant
policelike
police line
police lives matter
police magistrate
policeman
police man
police office
police officer
police one's brass
policeperson
police positive
police power
police procedural
police protection
police record
police report
police scanner
police science
police search advisor
police sergeant
police service
police sketch
policespeak
Policespeak
police special
police squad
police state
police station
police tape
police up
police van
police village
police violence
police wagon
policewear
policewoman
policework
police work
policial
policiary
prepolice
pretty police
religious police
riot police
riot police officer
secret police
security police
Sharia police
state police
Syariah police
thought police
time police
tone police
tourist police
traffic police
water police
Related terms: word: policy
word: polis
word: politic
word: political
word: politically
word: politician
word: politicisation
word: politicise
word: politicization
word: politicize
word: politics
word: polity
word: authority
word: power
word: beat
word: manor
word: patch
word: long arm of the law