Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Police \Po*lice"\, n. [F., fr. L. politia the condition of a state, government, administration, Gr. ?, fr. ? to be a citizen, to govern or administer a state, fr. ? citizen, fr. ? city; akin to Skr. pur, puri. Cf. Policy polity, Polity.]
A judicial and executive system, for the government of a city, town, or district, for the preservation of rights, order, cleanliness, health, etc., and for the enforcement of the laws and prevention of crime; the administration of the laws and regulations of a city, incorporated town, or borough.
That which concerns the order of the community; the internal regulation of a state.
The organized body of civil officers in a city, town, or district, whose particular duties are the preservation of good order, the prevention and detection of crime, and the enforcement of the laws.
(Mil.) Military police, the body of soldiers detailed to preserve civil order and attend to sanitary arrangements in a camp or garrison.
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The cleaning of a camp or garrison, or the state ? a camp as to cleanliness.
Police commissioner, a civil officer, usually one of a board, commissioned to regulate and control the appointment, duties, and discipline of the police.
Police constable, or Police officer, a policeman.
Police court, a minor court to try persons brought before it by the police.
Police inspector, an officer of police ranking next below a superintendent.
Police jury, a body of officers who collectively exercise jurisdiction in certain cases of police, as levying taxes, etc.; -- so called in Louisiana.
--Bouvier.Police justice, or Police magistrate, a judge of a police court.
Police offenses (Law), minor offenses against the order of the community, of which a police court may have final jurisdiction.
Police station, the headquarters of the police, or of a section of them; the place where the police assemble for orders, and to which they take arrested persons.
WordNet
n. a police officer of the lowest rank [syn: constable]
Usage examples of "police constable".
The young police constable rising from the rubble was cruelly clubbed down by a rifle butt.
Fortune's theories disturb the official tranquillity he is apt to be facetious about the bicycle lamp of Police Constable Napper.
Fortunately, they had not long to wait before relief came in the substantial form of Police Constable Hobkirk, a stout and middle-aged man who inhabited a cottage in the High Street, and devoted as much of his time as could be spared from his not very arduous police-duties to the cultivation of tomatoes, vegetable-marrows and flowers which almost invariably won the first prizes at all the local shows.
By eight thirty, she had passed out on a footway on Aldgate High Street, and Police Constable George Simmons picked her up and moved her off to the side.
It seemed an eternity before the stolid helmeted figure of a police constable came round the corner of the house.
The next time she was accounted for was that evening, when City Police Constable Louis Robinson found her lying drunk on the pavement.
A minute later, they gave the all clear, and a police constable broke open the door with a crowbar.