De*part"ment (?), n. [F. département, fr. départir. 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 instruction; 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.
Hear it pronounced