policy

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)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.”

   “Federal policy is constructed in complex ways, involving legislation, regulation, and lobbying.”

2. (countable, uncountable)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.”

3. (countable, uncountable)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; […]”

4. (archaic, countable, uncountable)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.”

5. (Scotland, countable, in-plural, uncountable)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.”

   “Next morning was so splendid that as he walked through the policies towards the mansion house despair itself was lulled.”

   “The house and its policies (grounds) lie between what were once two or three separate hamlets.”

6. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)The art of governance; political science.

   “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: […]”

7. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)A state; a polity.
8. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)A set political system; civil administration.
9. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)A trick; a stratagem.

   “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: […]”

10. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)Motive; object; inducement.

    “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?”

11. A contract of insurance.
12. A document containing or certifying this contract.

    “Your insurance policy covers fire and theft only.”

13. (obsolete)An illegal daily lottery in late nineteenth and early twentieth century USA on numbers drawn from a lottery wheel (no plural)
14. A number pool lottery

verb

1. (transitive)To regulate by laws; to reduce to order.

   “Policying of cities.”