unpoliced

adjective

un·​po·​liced ˌən-pə-ˈlēst How to pronounce unpoliced (audio)
: not controlled or regulated by or as if by police : not policed
a largely unpoliced part of town

Examples of unpoliced in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Libya’s remote beaches, increasingly unpoliced, have been swamped with migrants headed for Europe. Ian Urbina, The New Yorker, 28 Nov. 2021 Now thousands of black-hatted and black-clothed Haredim were gathering in Jerusalem for his funeral procession, unmasked and unpoliced, creating a stark visual record of what seemed certain to become a superspreader event. New York Times, 25 Feb. 2021 But it was made easier by a system that is largely unpoliced and ripe for exploitation: the conferring of special admissions status to nonscholarship athletes. Rachel Bachman, WSJ, 17 Mar. 2019 Brilinta fits a pattern of what might be called pay-later conflicts of interest, which have gone largely unnoticed—and entirely unpoliced. Charles Piller, Science | AAAS, 5 July 2018 An investigative report by Science has uncovered unpoliced potential conflicts of interest among members of Food and Drug Administration drug-review advisory panels. Katie Langin, Science | AAAS, 6 July 2018 The clustering of higher-risk brokers underscores regulator worries about the largely unpoliced market. Coulter Jones, WSJ, 24 June 2018 But the Taliban has long been entrenched in the province, operating freely in remote and unpoliced areas. Sharif Hassan, Washington Post, 26 Feb. 2018

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'unpoliced.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1831, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of unpoliced was in 1831

Dictionary Entries Near unpoliced

Cite this Entry

“Unpoliced.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/unpoliced. Accessed 2 May. 2024.

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!