/peuh lees"/ , n. , v. , policed, policing .
n.
1. Also called police force . 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: Several police are patrolling the neighborhood.
3. the regulation and control of a community, esp. for the maintenance of public order, safety, health, morals, etc.
4. the department of the government concerned with this, esp. with the maintenance of order.
5. any body of people officially maintained or employed to keep order, enforce regulations, etc.
6. people who seek to regulate a specified activity, practice, etc.: the language police.
7. Mil. (in the U.S. Army)
a. the cleaning and keeping clean of a camp, post, station, etc.
b. the condition of a camp, post, station, etc., with reference to cleanliness.
v.t.
8. to regulate, control, or keep in order by or as if by means of police.
9. Mil. to clean and keep clean (a camp, post, etc.)
[ 1520-30; politia citizenship, government, for L politia; see POLITY ]
Pronunciation . Many English words exemplify the original stress rule of Old English and other early Germanic languages, according to which all parts of speech except unprefixed verbs were stressed on the first syllable, and prefixed verbs were stressed on the syllable immediately following the prefix. Although the scope of this rule has been greatly restricted by the incorporation into English of loanwords that exhibit other stress patterns, the rule has always remained operative to some degree, and many loanwords have been conformed to it throughout the history of English.
For South Midland and Midland U.S. speakers in particular, shifting the stress in borrowed nouns from a noninitial syllable to the first syllable is still an active process, yielding /poh"lees/ for POLICE and /dee"troyt/ for Detroit, as well as cement, cigar, guitar, insurance, umbrella, and idea said as /see"ment/ , /see"gahr/ , /git"ahr/ , /in"shoor euhns/ , /um"brel euh/ , and /uy"deeeu/ .