bureau Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun an administrative unit of government
    office; agency; authority; federal agency; government agency.
    • the Central Intelligence Agency
    • the Census Bureau
    • Office of Management and Budget
    • Tennessee Valley Authority
  2. noun furniture with drawers for keeping clothes
    chest; chest of drawers; dresser.

WordNet

Bu"reau noun
Etymology
F. bureau a writing table, desk, office, OF., drugget, with which a writing table was often covered, equiv. to F. bure, and fr. OF. buire dark brown, the stuff being named from its color, fr. L. burrus red, fr. Gr. flame-colored, prob. fr. fire. See Fire, n., and cf. Borel, n.
Wordforms
plural E Bureaus feminine Bureaux
Definitions
  1. Originally, a desk or writing table with drawers for papers. Swift.
  2. The place where such a bureau is used; an office where business requiring writing is transacted.
  3. Hence: A department of public business requiring a force of clerks; the body of officials in a department who labor under the direction of a chief. ✍ On the continent of Europe, the highest departments, in most countries, have the name of bureaux; as, the Bureau of the Minister of Foreign Affairs. In England and America, the term is confined to inferior and subordinate departments; as, the "Pension Bureau," a subdepartment of the Department of the Interior. Obs. In Spanish, bureo denotes a court of justice for the trial of persons belonging to the king's household.
  4. A chest of drawers for clothes, especially when made as an ornamental piece of furniture. U.S.

Webster 1913