police

Less common meanings

4. 4
   nounderogatoryfigurativelyironic

   People who try to enforce norms or standards on others as though granted authority similar to that of the police.

   Online, the grammar police pounce on every misplaced comma.

   He resented the self-appointed police of acceptable opinion in his department.

   UsageA word for the area comes first: the grammar police, the fashion police, the language police.

   Note

   The tone is ironic and mildly derogatory, aimed at people who claim an authority nobody gave them. Mary Beard's It's a Don's Life (2009) uses the taste police this way. The Guardian in 2016 applied the language police to the French authorities who decreed the circumflex largely redundant. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

   • Mary Beard wrote It's a Don's Life, first published in 2009. cdn.waterstones.com
   • The book uses 'taste police' for people objecting to something they consider aesthetically inappropriate. en.wiktionary.org
   • The Guardian reference is accurately dated and characterized. theguardian.com
5. 5
   clean upverbslangtransitive or intransitive

   To clean up an area, especially as an assigned military duty.

   After the firing drill, the range officer told them to police up every piece of spent brass.

   After the field exercise, the squad spent an hour policing the training area, picking up spent shell casings and empty ration packets.

   UsageOften with up: police up spent brass, or police the area.

   Similarclean, tidy

   Note

   Here the soldiers' slang becomes a verb, and its object can be either the place or the things gathered from it. Oliver Stone's Platoon (1986) has "Police up your extra ammo and frags," with the common particle up. In Robert B. Parker's "police the brass," the brass is spent cartridge cases. The -ing form also serves as a noun: a unit "does its own policing." The duty itself is the cleanup duty. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 6 facts

   • Platoon is a 1986 film written and directed by Oliver Stone. en.wikipedia.org
   • The quoted words occur in Platoon; Elias speaks them. cemp.ac.uk
   • The phrase “police the brass” occurs in Robert B. Parker's writing. en.wiktionary.org
   • “Brass” here means spent cartridge cases. en.wiktionary.org
   • A military organization is described as doing its own policing. en.wiktionary.org
   • In this construction, “policing” functions as a noun, the object of “does”; this example does not illustrate an intransitive use of the verb. en.wikipedia.org
6. 6
   nounarchaic

   The administration and regulation of a community or society; its overall governance and good order.

   The notion of ‘police’ – that is, rational administration – was seen as a historical force which could bring civilized improvement to societies.

   2002, Colin Jones, The Greta Nation

   Similaradministration

   Note

   Governance in the broad older sense, close to the word's roots: Middle French police, from Latin polītīa and Greek politeía, "state, government." Policy and polity are doublets from the same source. Here the word covers the whole ordering of a society, which is why the historian Colin Jones can describe 'police' as "rational administration," a force for civilized improvement. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 5 facts

   • Police derives from Middle French police, Latin polītīa and Ancient Greek politeía; the Latin word means state or government. en.wiktionary.org
   • Policy, polity and police are doublets. en.wiktionary.org
   • The older meaning encompasses administration and regulation of society. en.wiktionary.org
   • Colin Jones is a historian. qmul.ac.uk
   • Jones uses the exact phrase rational administration and describes police as having been viewed as a force for civilized improvement. en.wiktionary.org
7. 7
   nounslang

   The organized cleanup of a military facility, performed as a formal assigned duty.