noun
A principle of behaviour, conduct which an entity (government, organization, etc.) applies or seeks to follow, especially as formally expressed by an authoritative body.
The Communist Party has a policy of returning power to the workers.
It's company policy that all mobile phones are forbidden in meetings.
A document describing such a policy.
Please print extra copies of this policy and post them where it will be easy for everyone to see.
Wise, advantageous, or politic conduct; prudence, formerly also with connotations of craftiness.
[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; […]
Specifically, political shrewdness or (formerly) cunning; statecraft.
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.
The grounds of a large country house.
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 very young.
There was but one thing happened worth narrating; and that is the visit I had of Robin Oig, one of the sons of the notorious Rob Roy. He was sought upon all sides on a charge of carrying a young woman from Balfron and marrying her (as was alleged) by force; yet he stepped about Balquhidder like a gentleman in his own walled policy.
verb
To regulate by laws; to reduce to order.
Policying of cities.
noun
A contract of insurance.
A document containing or certifying this contract.
Your insurance policy covers fire and theft only.
An illegal daily lottery in late nineteenth and early twentieth century USA on numbers drawn from a lottery wheel (no plural)
A number pool lottery