policing
Americannoun
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the act of maintaining public order and security, enforcing the law, or regulating or controlling something, by or as if by members of a police force.
No matter what style is adopted for the policing of a community, officers must use discretion in interpreting the activities of citizens.
Careful family use of the internet doesn't need to be a punitive policing of children's activities online.
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Military. the act of cleaning up a camp or post or of keeping it clean.
After the major’s visit, the policing of the entire camp and all the fighting positions improved 100 percent.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of policing
First recorded in 1830–40; police ( def. ) + -ing 1 ( def. )
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"As we deliver our reforms to policing, we will ensure that their wellbeing is prioritised, protected and never treated as an afterthought."
From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026
"We're looking to tackle that now with some more proactive policing," he said, pointing to new funding for portable automatic number plate recognition technology and the use of drone operators.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
As policing theorist Mark Neocleous has argued, pacification is the production of order by the very forces that create the danger they claim to manage.
From Slate ● Jul. 27, 2026
But there was a twist: The agency tasked with policing corporate record-keeping somehow lost reams of its own text messages between Mr. Gensler and other officials during the most intense period of the anti-crypto campaign.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026
This was a major departure from traditional policing, where lawmen were typically products of their own communities.
From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
