police n.
1. (Scot./US) a policeman [abbr.].
 | Chicago American 5 Sept. n.p.: There is a police in attendance [...] in the theatre [DA]. | |
| Adventures of Snodgrass 8: He was a police [DA]. | |
| Pricking Thumb 29: ‘I’m the police,’ he said [DA]. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Corner (1998) 176: ‘The police on the one charge got shot,’ [...] Fran explains that the arresting officer got killed in a shooting. |
2. (US prison) a prison guard.
| in Sweet Daddy 36: ‘He can’t go to the police.’ ‘Police?’ ‘Hacks, screws.’. | |
| Southern Illinoisan (Carbondale, IL) 7 Apr. 4/1: Prison Slang [...] Police, hack, pig, cop. Guards. | |
| Tragic Magic 137: Inmates hate guards – we call them bulls, hacks, COs, shit-heads, police. | |
| Riker’s 84: I got beat up the the police [authors’ note correction officers]. |
SE in slang uses
In compounds
(Irish) free second-hand clothes distributed to the poor by the police.
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | (con. 1930s) Dublin Tenement Life 128: But I made me Holy Communion in the police clothes that you got free cause we were so poor. |
(US) one’s fiancé.
| Edwardsville Intelligencer (IL) 14 Sept. 4/4: The Flappers’ Dictionary [...] Police Dog: Young man to whom one is engaged. |
(Aus. Und.) an informer.
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Advocate (Melbourne) 8 Nov. 6/3: The shadowing was so close that at one time it nearly , resulted in a serious collision through the car occupied by the police pimps running into that on which the hon. member and his friends were seated. | |
| Truth (Sydney) 20 Nov. 4/5: Police Pimps ands Phizgigs. Once a poor devil comes under the wrath of the law but very little chance is given him of ever again earning an honest living [...] Only one thing is left them if tbey wish to keep out of gaol, and that is to tarn police pimp and informer. | |
| Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 28 Nov. 1/1: The King-street man identified by the police pimp could neither read nor write. | |
| Mercury (Hobart) 10 July 6/4: I see there is a police pimp and spy taking notes of this meeting with the object of trying to put working class agitators behind the prison bars . | |
| Barrier Miner 31 Dec. 2/6: You police pimp, I’ll get you before many days, and I’ll fix you up, and all the police with you. | |
| Canberra Times 5 May 1/4: A police pimp named Lynch, who was responsible for the prosecution of Mrs. Wood at Concord, had framed many people. | |
| Hysterical Hist. of Aus. 175: Actually, my dear pupils, he was a shelf, a fizgig, a top-off, or, to use more polite language, what is known as a police pimp. | |
| Power Without Glory 99: ’Cos we don’t have police-pimps about ’ere, that’s why. You Stacey, and you’re a bloody nark. | |
| Wild Cat Falling 74: Can’t trust just anyone. Might be a police pimp laying a trap. | |
| Mad Dog Morgan 7: You know this Wendlan is a police pimp? |
(US und.) an intense, usu. violent interrogation, the third degree n. (1)
| Maltese Falcon (1965) 359: ‘You’ll want sleep if you’ve been standing up under a police-storm all night’. |
In phrases
(Aus.) working as a police informer.
| Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 16 Mar. 18: It is regrettable that one who seems to have a lot of influence in police affairs should express such childish and absurd views with regard to police pimping. | |
| Canberra Times 14 Ap. 3/4: [headline] POLICE ‘PIMPING’ NOW UNWELCOME. |