police

po•lice

[[t]pəˈlis[/t]] n. v. -liced, -lic•ing

1) an organized civil force for maintaining order, preventing and detecting crime, and enforcing the laws

2) (used with a pl. v.) members of such a force

3) the regulation and control of a community, esp. for the maintenance of public order, safety, morals, health, etc

4) the department of a government concerned with this, esp. with the maintenance of order

5) any body of people employed to keep order, enforce regulations, etc

6) cvb people who seek to regulate a specified behavior, activity, practice, etc.:

the language police[/ex]

7) mil

a) the cleaning and keeping clean of a military camp, post, etc

b) the cleanliness of a camp, post, etc

8) to regulate, control, or keep in order by or as if by means of police

9) mil to clean and keep clean (a military camp, post, etc.)

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Etymology: 1520–30; < MF: government, civil administration, police < LL polītia citizenship, government, for L polītīa; see polity pron: Many English words exemplify the original stress rule of Old English and other early Germanic languages, according to which all parts of speech were stressed on the first syllable, except for prefixed verbs, which were stressed on the syllable immediately following the prefix. Although loanwords that exhibit other stress patterns have since been incorporated into English, the older stress pattern remains operative to some degree. For South Midland and Midland U.S. speakers in particular, shifting the stress in borrowed nouns to the first syllable is still an active process, yielding [[t]ˈpoʊ lis[/t]] for police and [[t]ˈdi trɔɪt[/t]] for Detroit as well as cement, cigar, guitar, insurance, umbrella and idea said as [[t]ˈsi mɛnt[/t]] [[t]ˈsi gɑr[/t]] [[t]ˈgɪt ɑr[/t]] [[t]ˈɪn ʃʊər əns[/t]] [[t]ˈʌm brɛl ə[/t]] and [[t]ˈaɪ diə[/t]]