Policy

n. [O. Fr. police, Sp. policia, Lat. politia, Gr. πολιτεία. See supra.]

1. Polity. [Obs.]
2. The settled method by which the government and affairs of a nation are, or may be, administered; a system of public or official administration, as designed to promote the external or internal prosperity of a state.
3. Hence, the method by which any institution is administered; system of management.
4. Management or administration based on temporal or material interest, rather than on principles of equity or honor, hence, worldly wisdom; dexterity of management; cunning; stratagem.
5. Prudence or wisdom in the management of public and private affairs; wisdom; wit.

The very policy of a hostess, finding his purse so far above his clothes, did detect him. Fuller. 6. Motive; object. [Obs.] What policy have you to bestow a benefit where it is counted an injury? Sidney. 7. The place or tract within which one has authority or administration of affairs; specifically, the pleasure grounds about a gentleman’s residence in the country. [Scot.] Jamieson. SYN.—See POLITY.

n. [Fr. police, Pr. polissia, Sp. póliza, It. polizza, L. Lat. poletum, poleticum, polecticum, fr. Late Lat. polyptychum, pl. polyptycha, account-book, register, fr. Gr. πολυπτύχον, having many folds or leaves, fr. πολύς, many, and πτυχή, fold, leaf, from πτύσσειν, to fold.]

1. A ticket or warrant for money in the public funds.
2. (Law.) The writing or instrument in which a contract of insurance is embodied; an instrument in writing containing the terms and conditions on which one party engages to indemnify another against loss arising from certain hazards, perils, or risks to which his property may be exposed.

☞ The word policy is used also for the writing which insures against other events, as well as against loss of property. Interest policy, a policy that shows by its form that the assured has a real, substantial interest in the matter insured. — Wager policy, a policy that shows on the face of it that the contract it embodies is a pretended insurance, founded on an ideal risk, where the insured has no interest in any thing insured. A policy is valued when the agreed value of the subject is expressed on the face of it; open when the value of the subject is not fixed or agreed in it. Arnould.