Police

/pəˈliːs/ · noun

Meaning

(law enforcement) A constituted body of officers representing the civil authority of government, empowered to maintain public order and safety, enforce the law, and prevent, detect, and investigate crime..

Definitions by Sense

1. (law enforcement) A constituted body of officers representing the civil authority of government, empowered to maintain public order and safety, enforce the law, and prevent, detect, and investigate crime.
2. (usually plural only) The staff of such a department or agency, particularly its officers; (regional, chiefly US, Caribbean, Jamaica, Scotland, countable) an individual police officer.
3. (figuratively, usually ironic and mildly derogatory) People who try to enforce norms or standards as if granted authority similar to the police.
4. (military, slang) Cleanup of a military facility, as a formal duty.
5. (archaic, now rare) Synonym of administration, the regulation of a community or society.
6. (obsolete) Alternative form of policy.
7. (obsolete) Alternative form of polity, civilization, a regulated community.
8. (transitive) To enforce the law and keep order among (a group).

Example Sentences

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.

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.

Call the police!

Police! help! Police! help!

‘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?

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.

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.

There’s only one police in this town.

Synonyms for police

Antonyms for police

Related Words

Word Forms

• police
• polices
• policing
• policed

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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