Noun

(en noun)

A building or room where clerical or professional duties are performed.

*

, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=2 , passage=We drove back to the office with some concern on my part at the prospect of so large a case. Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke. He was dressed out in broad gaiters and bright tweeds, like an English tourist, and his face might have belonged to Dagon, idol of the Philistines.}}

*

*:There is an hour or two, after the passengers have embarked, which is disquieting and fussy.Passengers wander restlessly about or hurry, with futile energy, from place to place. Pushing men hustle each other at the windows of the purser's office , under pretence of expecting letters or despatching telegrams.

*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Revenge of the nerds , passage=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.}}

A bureau, an administrative unit of government.

A position of responsibility of some authority within an organisation.

:

A charge or trust; a function.

*(Bible), (w) xi. 13

*:Inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office .

*(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)

*:They [the eyes] resign their office and their light.

*(John Milton) (1608-1674)

*:Hesperus, whose office is to bring / Twilight upon the earth.

*(Isaac Newton) (1642-1727)

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

Rite, ceremonial observance of social or religious nature.

Religious service, especially a liturgy officiated by a Christian priest or minister.

*(John Evelyn) (1620-1706)

*:This morning was read in the church, after the office was done, the declaration setting forth the late conspiracy against the king's person.

A major administrative division, notably in certain governmental administrations, either at ministry level (e.g. the British Home Office) or within or dependent on such a department.

(lb) That which a person does, either voluntarily or by appointment, for, or with reference to, others; customary duty, or a duty that arises from human relations.

:

*(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)

*:I would I could do a good office between you.

*Doctrine and Covenants 25: 5 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah 1981

*:

*1813 , (Jane Austen), (Pride and Prejudice) , Modern Library Edition (1995), p.144

*:there I readily engaged in the office of pointing out to my friend the certain evils of such a choice.

(lb) The parts of a house given over to household work, storage etc.

*(Francis Bacon) (1561-1626)

*:As for the offices , let them stand at distance.

*1887 , Sir (Arthur Conan Doyle), (A Study in Scarlet) , III:

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

An office suite; a collection of work?related computer programs (shortened from several such suites with 'office' in their name).

Noun

(duties)

That which one is morally or legally obligated to do.

:

*1805 , 21 October,

*:England expects that every man will do his duty .

*

*:Captain Edward Carlisle; he could not tell what this prisoner might do. He cursed the fate which had assigned such a duty , cursed especially that fate which forced a gallant soldier to meet so superb a woman as this under handicap so hard.

*{{quote-book, year=1959, author=(Georgette Heyer), title=(The Unknown Ajax), chapter=1

, passage=Charles had not been employed above six months at Darracott Place, but he was not such a whopstraw as to make the least noise in the performance of his duties when his lordship was out of humour.}}

*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-10, volume=408, issue=8848, magazine=(The Economist), author=Lexington

, title= Keeping the mighty honest , passage=British journalists shun complete respectability, feeling a duty to be ready to savage the mighty, or rummage through their bins. Elsewhere in Europe, government contracts and subsidies ensure that press barons will only defy the mighty so far.}}

A period of time spent at work or doing a particular task.

:

Describing a workload as to its idle, working and de-energized periods.

A tax placed on imports or exports; a tariff.

(lb) One's due, something one is owed; a debt or fee.

*1526 , (William Tyndale), trans. Bible , (w) XX:

*:Take that which is thy duty , and goo thy waye.

(lb) Respect; reverence; regard; act of respect; homage.

*(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)

*:my duty to you

The efficiency of an engine, especially a steam pumping engine, as measured by work done by a certain quantity of fuel; usually, the number of pounds of water lifted one foot by one bushel of coal (94 lbs. old standard), or by 1 cwt. (112 lbs., England, or 100 lbs., United States).