unpolicedadj.
/(ˌ)ʌnpᵿˈliːst/, /(ˌ)ʌnˈpliːst/, U.S. /ˌənpəˈlist/ In early use: not politically organized. Later: not provided with, or guarded by, a police force; not monitored or regulated.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > lack of power > [adjective] > not regulated or controlled
unordainedc1390
unordinalc1400
unmannered1435
unorderly1566
uncontrolled1594
unmanaged1598
unordinate1610
unregulated?1623
unlicensed1680
unpoliced1753
1753 tr. F. I. Espiard de la Borde Spirit of Nations vi. iv. 387 The other unpoliced Class consisted only of Robbers and Pirates.
1768 tr. B. Patono Royal Matins i. 1 Nations barbarous and unpoliced.
1831 J. A. St. John Lives Celebrated Travellers II. 96 A wild unpoliced capital, where..women live in a state of perpetual masquerade.
1888 Sunday Inter Ocean (Chicago) 8 July ii. 1/3 The hereditary insanity engendered by taxed but unpoliced ‘whisky’.
1925 Cal. Mod. Lett. 1 70 A conviction of the value..of unpoliced expression, is as near as we come to any..editorial doctrine.
1961 Life 26 May 24 (headline) Suddenly a wild mob of toughs took over the unpoliced depot.
2002 R. Ashby S. Case iii. 58 The unpoliced wilderness of the Internet itself contained more lewd..material than any adult video store.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2014; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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adj.1753