DEPARTMENT • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • 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

... king, he was immediately deposed; and the injustice of his subjects made him responsible for the fertility of the earth, and the regularity of the seasons, which seemed to fall more properly within the sacerdotal department. [97] The disputed possession of some salt-pits [98] engaged the Alemanni and the Burgundians in frequent contests: the latter were easily tempted, by the secret solicitations and liberal offers of the emperor; and their fabulous descent from the Roman soldiers, ...

— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 2 • Edward Gibbon

... Wilson no Scotsman, Scott and Jeffrey not excepted, has exercised a wider and deeper influence upon the general intellect of his countrymen. With a vast and comprehensive genius, he has gathered from every department of nature the deep and genial suggestions of wisdom; he has found philosophy in the wilds, and imbibed knowledge by the mountain stream. Under canvas, in his sporting-jacket, or with the angler's rod, he is still the eloquent "old Christopher;" his contemplations ...

— The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volume III - The Songs of Scotland of the Past Half Century • Various

... incomparably easy air, begged to know whether I wanted a man of figure or a man of parts? For the benefit of those to whom this fashionable classification of domestics may not be familiar, I should observe, that the department of a man of figure is specially and solely to announce company on gala days; the business of the man of parts is multifarious: to write cards of invitation, to speak to impertinent tradesmen, to carry confidential messages, et ...

— Tales and Novels, Vol. IV • Maria Edgeworth

... to the Duchy of Normandy, which remained British after John Lackland had lost the last of his continental possessions, retaining their local independence and ancient institutions under the protection of England; a far better thing for them than any enjoyment of the privileges, either of a French Department, or of a British county represented in Parliament like the ...

— The Story of Rouen • Sir Theodore Andrea Cook

... Alexander Hamilton; the most forcible of revolutionary pamphleteers, the most efficient of staff-officers, and already an authority on finance. Major-General Henry Knox, the chief of the continental artillery service, who had presided over the war department during the confederation, became Secretary of War. Samuel Osgood of Massachusetts, experienced in civil affairs and a. judicious counsellor, was assigned to the General Post-Office; and Edmund Randolph, who had recanted his hostility to the constitution, and was now a close ...

— The Nation in a Nutshell • George Makepeace Towle

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