secret police
- noun
- /ˈsiːkrɪt pəˈliːs/
- Well, now Trump says that he's planning to send these secret police to cities all across America.
- Portuguese secret police
- secret police force
- Soviet secret police
He had this CIA and funded and trained secret police called the SAVAK.
- He had this CIA and funded and trained secret police called the SAVAK.
- Chief of police for Joe Stalin, secret police said find me an individual and I'll find a crime.
- Stalin is able to rely on a secret police apparatus that have been built up under Lennon already.
- And the reasons for that was that people like Khrushchev were really concerned about the secret police becoming too powerful.
- Is this what will the professor do when the secret police smashed break the door, smash his spectacles and take him away?
- She describes the secret police coming to her classroom and at the door of the classroom saying, give me so and so a student who's in her class.
- So they also got on without the Stock Exchange, the advertisement, the secret police and the bomb.
- And his last of the secret police heads, Buria, is most known for his quote.
- All right, So when he said that, I knew immediately that's he's making it up and he's probably secret police now.
Examples
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All the while, a secret police force maintained his power by targeting opponents at home and abroad.
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America helped the Shah of Iran establish a secret police and killed thousands of Iranian people.
Blog text (18) -
Up to 20 percent of all church officials directly worked with the secret police.
Academic text (1996) -
You do not see the secret police or Big Brother in this plan anywhere.
Blog text (17) -
Stasi was the secret police in East Germany.
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In recent years, the secret police have almost vanished from daily life.
Academic text (1999) -
In Poland, scores of secret police agents were still members of parliament, ministers, and ambassadors.
Academic text (1996) -
Violence and intimidation were brought into Saddam's realm through his ultimate control of the secret police.
Academic text (1995) -
Serbs dominated the officers' corps, the bureaucracy, and the secret police.
Academic text (1993) -
The secret police monitored the political demonstrations to suppress any dissent.
How Secret
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is compositionally clear: 'secret' (hidden/covert) + 'police' (law enforcement) yields the straightforward idea of a police organization that operates secretly. While specific connotations about political repression or unlawful methods may require context, the core meaning of a covert policing body is directly derivable by a B1 learner who knows both constituents.
Etymology
The noun secret police comes from the idea of secret meaning 'hidden' joined with police: officers who act like spies, watching, listening and reporting people without telling others. That's why the term means a police group that works 'secretly' to watch, control or punish people who oppose the government.