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Police vs Informant - What's the difference?

police | informant |

As nouns the difference between police and informant

is that police is a civil force granted the legal authority for law enforcement and maintain public order while informant is one who relays confidential information to someone, especially to the police; an informer.

As a verb police

is to enforce the law and keep order among (a group).

police

English

Noun

(-)
  • A civil force granted the legal authority for law enforcement and maintain public order.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=18 citation , passage=‘Then the father has a great fight with his terrible conscience,’ said Munday with granite seriousness. ‘Should he make a row with the police […]? Or should he say nothing about it and condone brutality for fear of appearing in the newspapers?}}
  • * {{quote-book, 2006, David Simon, Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, page=440 citation
  • , passage=This time it is the worst kind of call a murder police can get.}}
  • (obsolete) Policy.
  • (obsolete) Communal living; civilization.
  • * 2002 , , The Greta Nation , Penguin 2003, p. 218:
  • The notion of ‘police ’ – that is, rational administration – was seen as a historical force which could bring civilized improvement to societies.

    Synonyms

    * the cobblers, the fuzz, pigs]], , bobbies, peelers, woodentops (qualifier), [[6-up, the law

    Derived terms

    * chief of police * police box * police brutality * police captain * police car * police chief * police commissioner * police constable * police department * police detective * police dog * police force * police headquarters * police jury * police lieutenant * policeman * police officer * police precinct * police protection * police record * police sergeant * police service * police squad * police state * police station * police van * police wagon * policewoman

    Verb

    (polic)
  • To enforce the law and keep order among (a group).
  • * {{quote-news, year=2012, date=May 24, author=Nathan Rabin, work=The Onion AV Club
  • , title= Film: Reviews: Men In Black 3 , passage=Smith returns in Men In Black 3 as a veteran agent of a secret organization dedicated to policing the earth’s many extraterrestrials. }}
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-10, volume=408, issue=8848, magazine=(The Economist), author=Schumpeter
  • , title= Cronies and capitols , passage=Policing the relationship between government and business in a free society is difficult. Businesspeople have every right to lobby governments, and civil servants to take jobs in the private sector. Governments have to find the best people to fill important jobs: there is a limited supply of people who understand the financial system, for example.}}
  • To patrol an area.
  • * 2006 , , Hundred-Dollar Baby , Putnam, ISBN 0399153764, page 275,
  • "Fire off several rounds in a residential building and stop to police the brass?"
    1000 English basic words ----

    informant

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • One who relays confidential information to someone, especially to the police; an informer.
  • (linguistics) A native speaker who acts as a linguistic reference for a language being studied. The informant demonstrates native pronunciation, provides grammaticality judgments regarding linguistic well-formedness, and may also explain cultural references and other important contextual information.
  • * 1977 , A. E. Kibrik, The methodology of field investigations in linguistics
  • The only material the linguist has to begin with are the informant' s grammatical utterances in the target language pronounced arbitrarily in a natural or assigned communicative situation or stimulated artificially by the investigator.
  • * 2003 , Sergei Nirenburg, H. L. Somers, Yorick Wilks, Readings in machine translation (page 116)
  • The informant learns his language by formal training and, more importantly, by constant exposure to its use. He cannot repeat to the linguist what he has never seen or heard.

    Synonyms

    * (one who relays confidential information ): blabber, gossip, narc, stool pigeon, tattletale, rat, canary, snitch, stoolie, squealer, grass, bigmouth * See also

    See also

    * name names ----