Definition of: office

(ô′fis, of′is) noun
1. A particular duty, charge, or trust; an employment undertaken by commission or authority; a post or position held by an official or functionary; specifically, a position of trust or authority under a government: the office of premier.
2. That which is performed, assigned, or intended to be done by a particular thing, or that which anything is fitted to perform; function; service.
3. A place, building, or series of rooms in which some particular branch of the public service is conducted: the Patent Office, Post Office; also, the persons conducting such business; specifically, the head of the department and his immediate assistants: The Executive Office serves the president. In the United States the term is applied to those branches of the government business ranking next to the departments, the chiefs of which are not cabinet members; in Great Britain, to all branches of government business over which a secretary of state presides and to certain other departments having their chiefs in the cabinet: the War Office, Home Office.
4. A room or building in which a person transacts his business or carries on his stated occupation: distinguished from shop, store, studio, etc.: the lawyer's office.
5. plural Brit. The outbuildings devoted to culinary or other domestic purposes.
6. The persons collectively, as an association or corporation, whose headquarters are in an office: The office has telegraphed me to return.
7. Eccl. A prescribed religious or devotional service, particularly that for the canonical hours, or the service itself: the divine office; specifically, the daily service of the breviary, morning and evening prayer, the mass, communion, etc.
8. A ceremony; rite.
9. plural A proffered action of any kind; especially, a service: reinstated through the good offices of a friend. See synonyms under DUTY. [<AF <L officium a service, prob. <opus a work + facere do, make]