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.