DEPARTMENT • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Department

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/dɪpˈɑrtmənt/ Listen

noun

Department n.

Act of departing; departure. (Obs.) "Sudden departments from one extreme to another."

A part, portion, or subdivision.

A distinct course of life, action, study, or the like; appointed sphere or walk; province. "Superior to Pope in Pope's own peculiar department of literature."

Subdivision of business or official duty; especially, one of the principal divisions of executive government; as, the treasury department; the war department; also, in a university, one of the divisions of instruction; as, the medical department; the department of physics.

A territorial division; a district; esp., in France, one of the districts composed of several arrondissements into which the country is divided for governmental purposes; as, the Department of the Loire.

A military subdivision of a country; as, the Department of the Potomac.

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Etymology of 'Department'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Department" Quotes from Famous Books

... a room in the sprawling Department of Justice. The room was called the Kangaroo Court, in honor of ancient Anglo-Saxon judicial proceeding. Across the hall from it, also of antique derivation, was the Star Chamber. Just past that was the ...

— The Status Civilization • Robert Sheckley

... through the instrumentality of M. de Chirac, royal physician, or, according to a letter written by de Clieu himself, through the kindly offices of a lady of quality to whom de Chirac could give no refusal. The plants selected were kept at Rochefort by M. Begon, commissary of the department, until the departure of de Clieu for Martinique. Concerning the exact date of de Clieu's arrival at Martinique with the coffee plant, or plants, there is much conflict of opinion. Some authorities give the date as 1720, others 1723. Jardin[16] ...

— All About Coffee • William H. Ukers

... his attentions toward the Lackawanna had been misconstrued, for one night when Phoebe bade him adieu in the vestibule she broke down and wept upon his shoulder, saying that his coldness hurt her. She confessed that a rate clerk in the freight department wanted to marry her, and she supposed she'd have to accept his dastardly proposal because a girl couldn't go on working all her life, could she? Then Miss Gratz, of the C. & E.I., following a red-letter night at Grand Opera, succeeded ...

— Laughing Bill Hyde and Other Stories • Rex Beach

... a man, in whatever department or direction of thought his activity is engaged, succeeds in organizing, or even welding together, the materials on which he works, so that the product, as a whole, is visible to the mental eye, as a new creation or construction, he has an immense advantage over ...

— The Great Speeches and Orations of Daniel Webster • Daniel Webster

... song. At the present time, when the department of music performs this song, there is still the measurement of great and small by the hand, as well as a distinction of coarse and fine in the notes of the voice. This is by a rule handed down from antiquity. After this the emperor wished ...

— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. 1 • Various

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