1. The governmental department charged with the regulation and control of the affairs of a community, now chiefly the department established to maintain order, enforce the law, and prevent and detect crime.
2. 1. A body of persons making up such a department, trained in methods of law enforcement and crime prevention and detection and authorized to maintain the peace, safety, and order of the community.
   2. A body of persons having similar organization and function: campus police. Also called police force.
3. (used with a pl. verb) Police officers considered as a group.
4. Regulation and control of the affairs of a community, especially with respect to maintenance of order, law, health, morals, safety, and other matters affecting the public welfare.
5. Informal. A group that admonishes, cautions, or reminds: grammar police; fashion police.
6. 1. The cleaning of a military base or other military area: Police of the barracks must be completed before inspection.
   2. The soldiers assigned to a specified maintenance duty.

1. To regulate, control, or keep in order with or as if with a law enforcement agency.
2. To make (a military area, for example) neat in appearance: policed the barracks.

[French, from Old French policie, civil organization, from Late Latin polītīa, from Latin, the State, from Greek polīteia, from polītēs, citizen, from polis, city.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.