secret police

noun

: a police organization operating for the most part in secrecy and especially for the political purposes of its government often with terroristic methods

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web

Rybakov and Putin — one who has spent his life fighting for freedom, the other who has spent his life crushing it — symbolize the long tug of war between the secret police and political dissidents over Russia’s fate. —Robyn Dixon, Washington Post, 23 Dec. 2022

When John Paul II’s native Poland was part of the old Soviet bloc, accusations against priests were routinely dismissed as fabrications by the communist secret police to undermine the church. —Corky Siemaszko, NBC News, 31 Dec. 2022

In Warsaw, authorities in 1989 quickly toppled a monument to Felix Dzerzhinsky, a Polish aristocrat who organized the Soviet secret police after the 1917 Bolshevik revolution. —Vanessa Gera, Anchorage Daily News, 31 Aug. 2022

The Soviet secret police had a robust U.S. presence in the 1950s, and Cynthia feared these agents would kill her children. —Bill Donahue, Washington Post, 17 Aug. 2022

Warnig, a former officer in the Stasi, East Germany’s secret police, was looking for ways around the U.S. action. —Souad Mekhennet, Washington Post, 23 Nov. 2022

The biographer has succeeded in humanizing the public image of the coldhearted secret police chief. —Kai Bird, Washington Post, 9 Nov. 2022

Rivas was an assistant to the head of the DINA secret police during the dictatorship. —Washington Post, 10 May 2022

But a few months later, that plan foundered when some of his generals and secret police agents launched a coup against him. —Ronald Suny, The Conversation, 31 Aug. 2022

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Word History

First Known Use

1823, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

secret police

noun

: a police organization operating mostly in secrecy and especially for the political purposes of its government and often using methods of terrorists