policy

1. 1

   A principle of behaviour, conduct which an entity (government, organization, etc.) applies or seeks to follow, especially as formally expressed by an authoritative body.countableuncountable

   • The Communist Party has a policy of returning power to the workers.
   • It's company policy that all mobile phones are forbidden in meetings.
2. 2

   A document describing such a policy.countableuncountable

   • Please print extra copies of this policy and post them where it will be easy for everyone to see.
3. 3

   Wise, advantageous, or politic conduct; prudence, formerly also with connotations of craftiness.countableuncountable

   • [H]e [Richard I of England] was diſcovered in an inne in Auſtria, becauſe he diſguiſed his perſon not his expenſes; ſo that the very policie of an hoſteſſe, finding his purſe ſo farre above his clothes, did detect him: […]
   • These bitter accusations might have been suppressed, had I with greater policy concealed my struggles, and flattered you into the belief of my being impelled by unqualified, unalloyed inclination; […]
4. 4

   Specifically, political shrewdness or (formerly) cunning; statecraft.archaiccountableuncountable

   • I, 'policie? that's their profession, And not simplicity, as they suggest.
   • Whether he believed himself a god, or only took on the attributes of divinity from motives of policy, is a question for the psychologist, since the historical evidence is indecisive.
5. 5

   The grounds of a large country house.Scotlandcountablein-plural

   • 1775, Samuel Johnson, A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland section on Aberbrothick Now and then about a gentleman’s house stands a small plantation, which in Scotch is called a policy, but of these there are few, and those few all v
6. 6

   The art of governance; political science.countableobsoleteuncountable

   • Liſt his diſcourse of Warre; and you ſhall heare / A fearefull Battaile rendred you in Muſique. / Turne him to any Cauſe of Pollicy, / The Gordian Knot of it he will vnlooſe, / Familiar as his Garter: […]
7. 7

   A state; a polity.countableobsoleteuncountable

8. 8

   A set political system; civil administration.countableobsoleteuncountable

9. 9

   A trick; a stratagem.countableobsoleteuncountable

   • Tis pollicie and ſtratageme muſt doo / That you affect, and ſo muſt you reſolue, / That vvhat you cannot as you vvould atchiue, / You muſt perforce accompliſh as you may: […]
10. 10

    Motive; object; inducement.countableobsoleteuncountable

    • I pray you (said he) honest men, what such right have you in me, as not to suffer me to doe with my self what I list? and what pollicie have you to bestow a benefite where it is counted an injury?

1. 1

   To regulate by laws; to reduce to order.transitive

   • Policying of cities.

1. 1

   A contract of insurance.

2. 2

   A document containing or certifying this contract.

   • Your insurance policy covers fire and theft only.
3. 3

   An illegal daily lottery in late nineteenth and early twentieth century USA on numbers drawn from a lottery wheel (no plural)obsolete

4. 4

   A number pool lottery

syn. policy racket