policy – English noun declension

English noun forms of policy

Noun: policy
Singularpolicy
Pluralpolicies

Sample Sentences

  • The Communist Party has a policy of returning power to the workers.
  • It's company policy that all mobile phones are forbidden in meetings.
  • Federal policy is constructed in complex ways, involving legislation, regulation, and lobbying.
  • Please print extra copies of this policy and post them where it will be easy for everyone to see.
  • [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: […] [1639, Thomas Fuller, “King Richard Taken Prisoner in Austria; Sold and Sent to the Emperour; Dearly Ransomed, Returneth Home”, in The Historie of the Holy Warre, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Thomas Buck, one of the printers to the Universitie of Cambridge [and sold by John Williams, London], →OCLC, book III, page 130:]
  • 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; […] [1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter XI, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volume II, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 131:]
  • I, 'policie? that's their profession,
  • And not simplicity, as they suggest. [c. 1589–1590 (date written), Christopher Marlo[we], edited by Tho[mas] Heywood, The Famous Tragedy of the Rich Iew of Malta. […], London: […] I[ohn] B[eale] for Nicholas Vavasour, […], published 1633, →OCLC, Act I:]
  • 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. [1946, Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, I.25:]
  • 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. [1886 May 1 – July 31, Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped, being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: […], London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 1886, →OCLC:]
  • Next morning was so splendid that as he walked through the policies towards the mansion house despair itself was lulled. [1955, Robin Jenkins, The Cone-Gatherers, Canongate, published 2012, page 36:]
  • The house and its policies (grounds) lie between what were once two or three separate hamlets. [1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 277, about Strachur:]
  • 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: […] [1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], pages 69–70:]
  • 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: […] [c. 1588–1593 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The Most Lamentable Romaine Tragedie of Titus Andronicus: […] (First Quarto), London: […] Iohn Danter, and are to be sold by Edward White & Thomas Millington, […], published 1594, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], signature [C4], verso:]
  • 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? (The New Arcadia) [c. 1580 (date written), Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “(please specify the folio)”, in [Fulke Greville; Matthew Gwinne; John Florio], editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London: […] [John Windet] for William Ponsonbie, published 1590, →OCLC:]

Etymology

From Middle English policie, from Old French policie, pollicie and police, from Late Latin politia (“citizenship; government”), classical Latin polītīa (in Cicero), from Ancient Greek πολιτεία (politeía, “citizenship; polis, (city) state; government”), from πολίτης (polítēs, “citizen”). Doublet of police, polis (“police”), and polity. See: Middle English Nouns 'policie', Latin Nouns 'polītīa', Ancient Greek Nouns 'πολιτεία'.