policy

1. (now rare) Specifically, political shrewdness or (formerly) cunning; statecraft.Examples: "I, 'policie? that's their profession, And not simplicity, as they suggest."; "Whether he believed himself a god, or only took on the attributes of divinity from motives of policy, is a question for the psychologist, since the historical evidence is indecisive."archaiccountableuncountable

2. (Scotland, now chiefly in the plural) The grounds of a large country house.Examples: "1775, Samuel Johnson, A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland section on Aberbrothick Now and then about a gentleman’s house stands a small plantation, which in Scotch is called a policy, but of these there are few, and those few all very young."; "There was but one thing happened worth narrating; and that is the visit I had of Robin Oig, one of the sons of the notorious Rob Roy. He was sought upon all sides on a charge of carrying a young woman from Balfron and marrying her (as was alleged) by force; yet he stepped about Balquhidder like a gentleman in his own walled policy."; "Next morning was so splendid that as he walked through the policies towards the mansion house despair itself was lulled."Scotlandcountablein-pluraluncountable

3. (obsolete) The art of governance; political science.Examples: "Liſt his diſcourse of Warre; and you ſhall heare / A fearefull Battaile rendred you in Muſique. / Turne him to any Cauſe of Pollicy, / The Gordian Knot of it he will vnlooſe, / Familiar as his Garter: […]"countableobsoleteuncountable

4. (obsolete) A state; a polity.countableobsoleteuncountable

5. (obsolete) A set political system; civil administration.countableobsoleteuncountable

6. (obsolete) A trick; a stratagem.Examples: "Tis pollicie and ſtratageme muſt doo / That you affect, and ſo muſt you reſolue, / That vvhat you cannot as you vvould atchiue, / You muſt perforce accompliſh as you may: […]"countableobsoleteuncountable