office

plural offices

1. lifestyleA ceremonial duty or service, particularly

   Golde (gaue he him)[…]for all maner of veſſels of euery offyce[…]

   1535 October 14 (Gregorian calendar), Myles Coverdale, transl., Biblia: The Byble, […] (Coverdale Bible), [Cologne or Marburg]: [Eucharius Cervicornus and Johannes Soter?], →OCLC, I. Cronicles xxix, folio xc, verso, column 2

2. A ceremonial duty or service
   1. ChristianityThe authorized form of ceremonial worship of a church.
   2. ChristianityAny special liturgy, as the Office for the Dead or of the Virgin.
   3. ChristianityA daily service without the eucharist.
   4. CatholicismThe daily service of the breviary, the liturgy for each canonical hour, including psalms, collects, and lessons.

      In the Latin rite, all bishops, priests, and transitional deacons are obliged to recite the Divine Office daily.

      1 more example

      His spirituall exercises were chiefly Prayer, the H. Sacrifice of Masse, his Canonicall Houres or diuine Office.

      1674, Richard Strange, The Life and Gests of S. Thomas Cantilupe, Bishop of Hereford, page 287

   5. ChristianityVarious prayers used with modification as a morning or evening service.

      Synonyms: Divine Office, breviary, Liturgy of the Hours, liturgy of the hours, canonical hours

   6. ChristianityLast rites.

      To show their loue in this last office done To a dead friend.

      1618, S. Rowlands, Sacred Memorie, section 37

      2 more examples

      The deuout offices of balming and anointing the dead bodies[…]

      1582, The Nevv Testament of Iesus Christ: […] (Douay–Rheims Bible), Rheims: Iohn Fogny, →OCLC, Iohn 12, marginalia, page 254

      I[…]will be first to render thee the decent offices due to the dead.

      1822 May 29, [Walter Scott], chapter XI, in The Fortunes of Nigel. […], volume III (in English), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 318

   7. obsoleteChristianityMass, (particularly) the introit sung at its beginning.

      The office, or Introite, (as they call it).

      1549, “Svpper of the Lorde”, in The Book of Common Prayer, page 121

3. A position of responsibility.

   Do not conflate the officeholder with the office; the distinction sometimes matters.

   3 more examples

   When the office of Secretary of State is vacant, its duties fall upon an official within the department.

   […]in as moche as I am the apoſtle off the gentyls I will magnify myn office[…]

   1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Romans xj:[13], folio ccxj, verso

   I do solemnly swear... that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."

   1787, United States Constitution, Article II, §1

4. Official position, particularly high employment within government; tenure in such a position.

   She held office as secretary of state until she left office to run for office.

   2 more examples

   Fla.[…]Well, would I were / Gently put out of Office, before I were forc'd out[…]

   c. 1605–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 82, column 2

   The Tories had been in office ten years.

   1923, Rose Macaulay, Told by an Idiot, act III, scene xv, line 227

5. A duty, particularly owing to one's position or station; a charge, trust, or role; (obsolete, rare) moral duty.

   Ang.... Doe you your office, or giue vp your Place, And you shall well be spar'd.

   c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], line 749

   4 more examples

   The Sun was ſunk, and after him the Starr / Of Heſperus, whoſe Office is to bring / Twilight upon the Earth[…]

   1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC

   The Antients would certainly have invoked the Goddeſs Flora for this Purpoſe, and it would have been no Difficulty for their Prieſts or Politicians to have perſuaded the People of the real Preſence of the Deity, though a plain Mortal had perſonated her, and performed her Office.

   1749, Henry Fielding, “Containing five Pages of Paper”, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume II, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book IV, page 6

   A woman[…]might bring herself to submit to the offices of a nurse, for the sake of the provision and security of a wife.

   1811, [Jane Austen], chapter VIII, in Sense and Sensibility […], volume I, London: […] C[harles] Roworth, […], and published by T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 87

   […]there I readily engaged in the office of pointing out to my friend, the certain evils of such a choice.

   1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter XII, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volume II, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 145

6. archaicFunction: anything typically done by or expected of something.

   In this experiment the several intervals of the teeth of the comb do the office of so many prisms.

   1704, I[saac] N[ewton], “(please specify |book=1 to 3)”, in Opticks: Or, A Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light. […], London: […] Sam[uel] Smith, and Benj[amin] Walford, printers to the Royal Society, […], →OCLC

   3 more examples

   I hope you saw her petticoat, six inches deep in mud,[…]and the gown which had been let down to hide it, not doing its office.

   1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter VIII, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volume I, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 76

   These ‘Pacific boom-lateens’... are believed to derive from a kind of sprit-sail... in which the upper sprit performs the office of a more or less aft-raking mast.

   1971, John Needham, chapter III, in Science and Civilisation in China, page 590

   The anxious businessman will learn that in most of Southeast Asia,... presenting your business card with your left hand is an affront, every decent Moslem knowing the filthy, smelly offices you reserve that left hand for.

   1988, P. Fussell, Thank God for Atom Bomb, page 134

7. pluralregionalA service, a kindness.

   The secretary prevailed at the negotiations through the good offices of the Freedonian ambassador.

   5 more examples

   ...which we have hitherto forborne to graunt... for the evell offices whiche her other Secretary did there.

   1575, Elizabeth I, letter

   Bush. Thither will I with you, for little office Will the hatefull commons perfourme for vs, Except like curs to teare vs all to pieces...

   1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], line 1089

   One of the Maxims which the Devil, in a late Viſit upon Earth, left to his Diſciples, is, when once you are got up, to kick the Stool from under you. In plain Engliſh, when you have made your Fortune by the good Offices of a Friend, you are adviſed to diſcard him as ſoon as you can.

   1749, Henry Fielding, “Which concludes the first Book, with an Instance of Ingratitude, which we hope will appear unnatural”, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume I, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book I, page 75

   I[…]am sure you will be too generous to do us any ill offices.

   1811, [Jane Austen], chapter XIII, in Sense and Sensibility […], volume III, London: […] C[harles] Roworth, […], and published by T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 263

   And the office of thy calling shall be for a comfort unto my servant, Joseph Smith, Jun., thy husband, in his afflictions, with consoling words, in the spirit of meekness.

   1830, Joseph Smith, Doctrine and Covenants, 25:5

8. figurativelyslangInside information.

   Giving the office—is when you suffer any person, who may stand behind your chair, to look over your hand.

   1803, Sporting Magazine, number 21, page 327

   1 more example

   "[…]What is there for me in it?" "Not a shilling." "What? Wasn't it I that gave the information? Where would you have been if I had not given you the office?"

   1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “Where Silas Linden Comes into His Own”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019

9. A room, set of rooms, or building used for non-manual work, particularly

   The office of the Secretary of State is cleaned when it is vacant.

   5 more examples

   Now it came to paſſe that at what time the chest was brought vnto the kings office, by the hand of the Leuites[…]

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 2 Chronicles 24:11, column 1

   Griffith, having taken offices a few doors off, also carried on the business of a solicitor.

   1885, The Law Times Reports, number 53, page 459

   We drove back to the office with some concern on my part at the prospect of so large a case.

   1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, page 15

   An English lawyer, whether barrister or solicitor, never has an office, but always chambers.

   [1945, H. L. Mencken, The American Language, supplement 1, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, →OCLC, page 503

   Think of banking today and the image is of grey-suited men in towering skyscrapers. Its future, however, is being shaped in converted warehouses and funky offices in San Francisco, New York, and London, where bright young things in jeans and T-shirts huddle around laptops, sipping lattes or munching on free food.

   2013 August 3, “Revenge of the Nerds”, in The Economist, number 408

10. A room, set of rooms, or building used for non-manual work
    1. A room, set of rooms, or building used for administration and bookkeeping.

       The “Pall Mall Gazette” had its offices[…]in Catherine Street[…]

       1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, “The Pall Mall Gazette”, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume I, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849, →OCLC, page 347

    2. A room, set of rooms, or building used for selling services or tickets to the public.

       There will be some of the family waiting for you at the coach-office.

       1819 September 22, John Keats, letter to Reynolds

    3. USmedicineA room, set of rooms, or building used for consultation and diagnosis, but not surgery or other major procedures.

       This one was made out at a private office—Office is American for Surgery.

       1975, M. Duke, chapter VIII, in Death of Holy Murderer, page 108

       Synonyms: department, ministry, bureau

11. figurativelyThe staff of such places.

    The whole office was there... well, except you, of course.

12. figurativelyThe administrative departments housed in such places, particularly

    He's from our public relations office.

13. The administrative departments housed in such places
    1. AustraliaUKcapitalizedfigurativelyusuallyA ministry or other department of government.

       The secretary of state's British colleague heads the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

    2. abbreviationcapitalizedfigurativelyusuallyCatholicismShort for Holy Office: the court of final appeal in cases of heresy.

       They abiured their Heresy bublikly [sic] before the Commissary of the holy office.

       1658, Pilgrim's Book, page 3

       1 more example

       A Biscayner is capable to be a Cavalier of any of the three habits without any scrutiny to be made of the Office, whether he be, limpio de la sangre de los Moros, that is cleare of the bloud of the Moores or no.

       1642, J. Howell, chapter X, in Forraine Travell, page 131

    3. figurativelyA particular place of business of a larger white-collar business.

       He worked as the receptionist at the Akron office.

       4 more examples

       But there is an Insuring-Office set up in the Gospel, as to the venture of our eternities.

       1647, W. Bridge, Saints Hiding-place, page 17

       Would not an Office of Insurance for Servants be of Service, and what Methods are proper for the erecting such an Office?

       1732, Benjamin Franklin, Proposals & Queries to be Asked the Junto

       […]there are advertising offices, and[…]by applying to them I should have no doubt of very soon meeting with something that would do.

       1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], chapter XVII, in Emma: […], volume II, London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray, →OCLC, page 324

       […]a large Danish sun or star hanging round his neck by a blue ribbon[…]had given him the appearance of being insured in some extraordinary Fire Office.

       1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter XII, in Great Expectations […], volume II, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLC, page 204

       Synonyms: workplace, workstead, practice

14. datedin pluralThe parts of a house or estate devoted to manual work and storage, as the kitchen, scullery, laundry, stables, etc., particularly (euphemistic, dated) a house or estate's facilities for urination and defecation: outhouses or lavatories.

    The bathroom's to the right and the usual offices next to it.

    1957, John Braine, chapter I, in Room at Top, page 13

    5 more examples

    As for the Offices, let them stand at some Distance from the House, with some low covered Galleries, to pass from them to the Palace it self.

    1720, William Willymott translating Francis Bacon as "Of Building" in Lord Bacons Essays, Vol. I, page 283

    ... proposals for erecting 500 Publick Offices of Ease in London and Westminster...

    1727, The Grand Mystery

    A short passage, bare planked and dusty, led to the kitchen and offices.

    1887, Arthur Conan Doyle, chapter III, in A Study in Scarlet

    Only in planted areas does one find old examples of planned ‘courtyard farms’ where the house and offices enclose a square or rectangular yard.

    1957, Emyr Estyn Evans, chapter VIII, in Irish Folk Ways, page 112

    Aft of the lobby... is the dining saloon for the passengers with the offices of necessity on either side of it.

    1980, William Golding, chapter I, in Rites of Passage, page 6

15. UKabbreviationclippinghistoricallawClipping of inquest of office

    If the Crown claimed the land of an idiot, the person had first to be found an idiot by office.

    1977, John McDonald Burke, Jowitt's Dictionary of English Law, volume I, page 280

    1 more example

    If they find the treason or felony... of the party accused... the king is thereupon, by virtue of this office found, intitled to have his forfeitures.

    1768, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, volume III, page 259

16. obsoleteA piece of land used for hunting; the area of land overseen by a gamekeeper.

    All hunt in James Whitendales office.

    1617, Nicholas Assheton, Journal, page 60

17. figurativelyobsoleteslangA hangout: a place where one is normally found.

    His Office, any Man's ordinary Haunt, or Plying-place, be it Tavern, Ale-house, Gaming-house.

    1699, A New Dictionary of the Terms Ancient and Modern of the Canting Crew

18. UKdatedslanggovernmentA plane's cockpit, particularly an observer's cockpit.

    I withdraw into ‘the office’, otherwise the observer's cockpit.

    1917, Alan Bott, An Airman's Outings, page 161

    2 more examples

    In the slang of the Royal Air Force man, the cockpit of his plane is the ‘pulpit’ or ‘office’, the glass covering over it the ‘greenhouse’.

    1941 March 24, Life, page 85

    ‘Up in the office they too knew it.’ ‘The office? You mean the flight deck?’ ‘Just that. No more. No less. The office.’

    1966 May 13, New Statesman, page 687

19. computingA collection of business software typically including a word processor and spreadsheet and slideshow programs.
20. obsoleteAn official or group of officials; (figuratively) a personification of officeholders.

    […]For who would beare... The pangs of despiz'd loue, the lawes delay, The insolence of office... When he himselfe might his quietas make... With a bare bodkin?

    c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]

    1 more example

    Ped. Now Mr. Office: What is the Reason that your vigilant Greatness And your Wife's wonderful wiseness have lock'd up from me The way to see my Mistress? Who's Dog's dead now, That you observe these Vigils?

    1647–1679, Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, “A Very Woman”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, Act III, scene ii

21. obsoleteA bodily function, (particularly) urination and defecation; an act of urination or defecation.

    Washing themselves, as they doe also after the offices of Nature.

    1613, Samuel Purchas, Purchas, His Pilgrimage, page 623

    3 more examples

    Cassio.... Whom I, with all the Office of my heart Intirely honour[…]

    c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv]

    I never, since I left England, till now, have regal'd Myself with a good house of Office... the holes in Germany are... too round, chiefly owing... to the broader bottoms of the Germans.

    1764 August 5, David Garrick, letter

    The very clerks,—those somewhat dirty springs / Of office, or the House of Office[…]

    1823 August 29, [Lord Byron], Don Juan. Cantos IX.—X.—and XI., London: […] [C. H. Reynell] for John Hunt, […], →OCLC, canto XI, stanza XL, page 123

    Synonyms: bathroom

22. obsoleteThe performance of a duty; an instance of performing a duty.

    At Rome (nor think me partial to the Poor) / All Offices of ours are out of Door[…]

    1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, John Dryden, transl., “[The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis.] The Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […] Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC, page 41

    1 more example

    […]whan the Quene of riche Arabia sawe all the wyſzdome of Salomon[…]⁊ the offyces of his miniſters, and their garmentes[…]ſhe wondred exceadingly[…]

    1535 October 14 (Gregorian calendar), Myles Coverdale, transl., Biblia: The Byble, […] (Coverdale Bible), [Cologne or Marburg]: [Eucharius Cervicornus and Johannes Soter?], →OCLC, III. Kynges [1 Kings] x:[4–5], folio lviij, recto, column 2

present singular third person offices · participle present officing · participle past officed · past officed

1. To provide (someone) with an office.

   Is he officed in Congressional Relations or is he officed in SCA?

   1966, United States. Congress. Senate, Hearings - Volume 8, page 451

   1 more example

   Prior to that time, Station personnel were first officed in temporary wartime barracks on the campus and then on the second floor of the Journalism Building.

   1976, General Technical Report RM., page 128

2. intransitiveTo have an office.

   "I believed that Dave was just doing a favor for his brother," said Somerville, who added that he assumed Lou and Dave officed together.

   1988 December 2, Grant Pick, “He Survived Operation Greylord”, in Chicago Reader, archived from the original on 03 Dec 2010