to police
- verb
- /pəˈliːs/
- But declining ethno-sectarian violence enables sectarianism to be policed more quickly, consistently, and harshly than in the past.
- police the border
- police behavior
- police the country
But two, the way we police drugs creates monopolies.
- But two, the way we police drugs creates monopolies.
- We have to police those people.
- So the boys then start policing each other, right?
- And they are sort of self policing themselves.
- Then they've been training them up to go back to police their country.
- You're just policing up, spreading love and joy.
- And and you police, it's like it's like a family.
Examples
-
Networks differ widely in the extent to which they see it as their duty to police their electronic airwaves.
Academic text (1994) -
Advocates of better-policed borders are battling against rising volume and mounting pressure for expedited customs clearance.
Academic text (2000) -
The American government thinks it has the right to police the world.
-
I'm not out here trying to police your every life choice.
-
U.S. government troops are not trained to police their own population.
-
Governments, especially in the developing world, cannot be expected to police every archaeological site.
Academic text (2003) -
Federation soldiers began to appear and tried to police the traffic as it surged ahead.
Fiction book (1991) -
Large corporations are not the only ones that would suffer in a world of heavily policed borders.
Academic text (2000) -
Iraq's long land frontiers are difficult to police and allow easy passage into Turkey, Iran, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Syria.
Academic text (2003) -
The officers regularly police the neighborhood to ensure everyone feels safe.
Synonyms
To move regularly through an area to keep it safe
Compounds
A country where the government uses strict police control and spying to limit people's freedoms
A group that works for the government in secret to watch and punish people who oppose it
A formal process by police to find facts and catch people who did the crime
People in the military who make sure others follow rules, keep order, and guard prisoners
A car that police officers use for patrolling, often with lights and a siren
- Canadian
Canada's national police force that enforces federal laws across the country
A member of the armed forces who enforces rules, keeps soldiers in order and guards prisoners
- Archaic
A lower court that handles minor crimes and sends serious cases to a higher court
A large, intelligent dog used by police and sometimes as a guide for blind people
How Strict
Surface Forms
Etymology
The verb police means 'to keep order' or 'to guard a place' and comes from the same root as the noun police, so to police a park or street is to act like the officers who keep people safe.