Gestapo

//ɡɛˈstɑːpəʊ// name, slang

name, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    the secret state police in Nazi Germany; known for its terrorist methods wordnet
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    The secret police of Nazi Germany. Nazism, historical

    "Fortunately this was Spain and not Germany. The Spanish secret police had some of the spirit of the Gestapo, but not much of its competence."

  2. 2
    Any militant oppressive force or group. broadly, derogatory, informal

    "Men were frog-marched by the feminist Gestapo into accepting an alien 'politically correct' agenda."

Synonyms

All synonyms
chekaconstabularycounty policefbihighway patrolinterpol

Example

More examples

"Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail."

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from German Gestapo, a contraction of Geheime Staatspolizei (“secret state police”).

Related phrases

nazi germanysecret police

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.