De*part"ment (?), n. [F. d'epartement, fr. d'epartir. See Depart, v. i.]
1. Act of departing; departure. [Obs.]
Sudden departments from one extreme to another.
Wotton.
2. A part, portion, or subdivision.
3. 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.
Macaulay.
4. 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 instructions; as, the medical department; the department of physics.
5. 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.
6. A military subdivision of a country; as, the Department of the Potomac.
© Webster 1913. | 
