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policy¹ Definition

pol·icy (päl′ə sē)

noun pl. -·cies

    1. Obsolete government or polity
    2. Now Rare political wisdom or cunning
  2. wise, expedient, or prudent conduct or management
  3. a principle, plan, or course of action, as pursued by a government, organization, individual, etc. foreign policy

Etymology: ME policie < OFr < L politia < Gr politeia: see police

policy² Definition

pol·icy (päl′ə sē)

noun pl. -·cies

  1. a written contract in which one party guarantees to insure another against a specified loss, damage, injury, etc. in consideration of payments, usually periodic, called premiums
  2. ☆
    1. an illegal lottery in which winning numbers are drawn from a revolving drum
    2. the numbers (see phrase at number)

Etymology: altered (infl. by policy) < MFr police < It polizza < ML apodixa < MGr apodeixis < Gr, proof < apodeiknynai, to display, make known: see apo- & diction

policy Synonyms

policy

n.

course, procedure, method, system, strategy, tactics, administration, management, theory, tenet, doctrine, behavior, scheme, design, arrangement, organization, plan, order.

policy Usage Examples

Converse of object

  • implement: The MMC UK Strategy Group is responsible for overseeing implementing Government policy on MMC across the UK.
  • adopt: We'll adopt a policy of localism that lets local people choose what's right for their neighborhood.
  • influence: Therefore, such evidence is generated with the specific intention of influencing policy, but is that objective achieved?
  • develop: Each Area Board should develop a policy on inter school links.

Adjective modifier

  • foreign: Simultaneously, we see an increase in public awareness of US foreign policy, or, the policing of global capital.
  • monetary: Equally distribute the burden of tax and funnel monetary policies to serve the economy.
  • economic: Geoffrey Robinson in his memoirs praises Arthur Andersen for their help in putting together New Labor's economic policies.
  • fiscal: Fiscal policy has been broadly successful to date under Labor, judged against the government's self-imposed rules.
  • environmental: Customer Experience Maximizing visitor enjoyment Hill View House devotes a whole page to its environmental policy on the Hill View House website.
  • social: Gail Wilson is lecturer in social policy at the London School of Economics.

Modifies a noun

  • maker: We are also independent and impartial, so policy makers listen to us.
  • statement: The policy statement Sustainable Communities: delivering through planning sets out the Government's aims.
  • making: It seeks to help decision makers and citizens understand the issues and trade-offs in policy making.
  • framework: It is those governments which establish the policy framework.
  • document: Please refer to the policy document, available on request, for full details.

Noun used with modifier

  • privacy: Privacy Policy Why do we have a privacy policy?
  • insurance: Find out more about our range of young driver car insurance policies by calling FREE on 08000 83 88 33.
  • government: Government policies to reduce inequality must give you more power over your life.
  • transport: Traditional transport policies do not work for the poor - whether in Columbia or Britain.
  • security: Can their own USB sticks bypass the security policy?
policy Quotes

Sometimes you move publicly, sometimes privately. Sometimes quietly, sometimes at the top of your voice. And sometimes an active policy is best advanced by doing nothing until the right timeöor never.

—Baker,James Addison, III

If some of my former colleagues are to be believed, I must be the first minister in history to have resigned because he was in full agreement with government policy.

—Howe, Baron

It is always the best policy to speak the truthöunless, of course, you are an exceptionally good liar.

—Jerome,Jerome K(lapka)

French truth,Dutch prowess,British policy, Hibernian learning, Scotch civility, Spaniards'dispatch,Danes' wit, are mainly seen in thee.

—Rochester,JohnWilmot, 2nd Earl of

He has all the qualities that go to the making of a leader of the Conservative Party. He is not stupid, but he is very dull. He is not eloquent, but he talks well. He is not honest, politically, but he is most evangelical.He has a Beckett little money, but not much. He always conforms to the party policy.

—Baron

Afew weeksago Ihad a revelation and told my secretary that I could give him a synthesis of forty-six years of living with economic policy. It is: 'Economic policy is random with respect to the performance of the American economy, but, thank God, there isn't much of it.'

—Stein, Herbert

Your honesty is not to be based either on religion or policy.Bothyourreligionand policy must be basedon it.

—Ruskin,John

England's foreign policy should always be inspired by the love of freedom. There should be a sympathy with freedom, a desire to give it scope, founded not upon visionary ideas but upon the long experience of many generations within the shores of this happy isle, that in freedom one lays the firmest foundations both of loyalty and order.

—Gladstone,W(illiam) E(wart)

English policy is to float lazily downstream, occasionally putting out a diplomatic boathook to avoid collisions.

—of Salisbury

Inthefieldof world policy,Iwoulddedicatethisnationto the policy of the good neighbour.

—Roosevelt, Franklin D(elano)

  The foreign policy of the noble Earl,Lord Russell, may be summed up in two truly expressive words: meddle and muddle.

—Derby, Edward Geoffrey Smith Stanley, 14th Earl of

Historians spend their lives and lavish ink Explaining how great commonwealths collapse From great defects of policyöperhaps The cause is sometimes simpler than they think. † Have more states perished, then, For having shackled the enquiring mind, Than those who, in their folly not less blind, Trusted the servile womb to breed free men?

—Hope, A(lec) D(erwent)

I am sure that the immediate abolition of the slave trade is the first, the principal, the most indispensable act of policy, of dutyand of justice the legislature of this country has to take, if it is indeed their wish to secure those important objects† For we continue to this hour a barbarous traffic in slaves, we continue it even yet, in spite of all our great and undeniable pretensions as civilisation.

—Pitt,William known as  theYounger

Economists have the least influence on policy where they know the most and are most agreed†the most influence on policy where they know the least and disagree most.

—Blinder, Alan

Making foreign policy is like pornographic movies†more fun doing it than watching it.

—Rogers,William Pierce

No foreign policy, no matter how ingenious, has any chance of success if it is born in the minds of a fewand carried in the heart of none.

—Kissinger, HenryAlfred

It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliance with any portion of the foreign world.

—Washington, BookerTaliaferro

Politique inte¤  rieure, je fais la guerre; politique exte¤  rieure, je fais toujours la guerre. Je fais toujours la guerre. My home policy? I wage war. My foreign policy? I wage war. Always, everywhere, I wage war.

—Clemenceau, Georges

As a Minister, it is my policy to keep all the nationalities within the Habsburg monarchy in a balanced state of well-modulated dissatisfaction.

—Taaffe, Eduard FranzJosef, Graf von

Kings will be tyrants from policy when subjects are rebels from principle.

—Burke, Edmund

Wisdom and policy dictate that we must do as destiny demands and keep peace with the irresistible march of events.

—Napoleon I