POLICE FORCE

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does police force mean? 

• POLICE FORCE (noun)
  The noun POLICE FORCE has 1 sense:

1. the force of policemen and officers

  Familiarity information: POLICE FORCE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• POLICE FORCE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The force of policemen and officers

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

constabulary; law; police; police force

Context example:

the law came looking for him

Hypernyms ("police force" is a kind of...):

force; personnel (group of people willing to obey orders)

law enforcement agency (an agency responsible for insuring obedience to the laws)

Meronyms (members of "police force"):

officer; police officer; policeman (a member of a police force)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "police force"):

European Law Enforcement Organisation; Europol (police organization for the European Union; aims to improve effectiveness and cooperation among European police forces)

gendarmerie; gendarmery (French police force; a group of gendarmes or gendarmes collectively)

Mutawa; Mutawa'een (religious police in Saudi Arabia whose duty is to ensure strict adherence to established codes of conduct; offenders may be detained indefinitely; foreigners are not excluded)

Mounties; RCMP; Royal Canadian Mounted Police (the federal police force of Canada)

New Scotland Yard; Scotland Yard (the detective department of the metropolitan police force of London)

secret police (a police force that operates in secrecy (usually against persons suspected of treason or sedition))

Schutzstaffel; SS (special police force in Nazi Germany founded as a personal bodyguard for Adolf Hitler in 1925; the SS administered the concentration camps)

posse; posse comitatus (a temporary police force)

 Context examples 

It is not for me, my dear Watson, to stand in the way of the official police force.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)