BUREAU • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Bureau

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/bjˈʊroʊ/ Listen

noun

Bureau n. (pl. E. bureaus, F. bureaux)

1.

Originally, a desk or writing table with drawers for papers.

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. Note: 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.)

Bureau system. See Bureaucracy.

Bureau Veritas, an institution, in the interest of maritime underwriters, for the survey and rating of vessels all over the world. It was founded in Belgium in 1828, removed to Paris in 1830, and reestablished in Brussels in 1870.

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Etymology of 'Bureau'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Bureau" Quotes from Famous Books

... of 1875, under the auspices of the Redpath Lyceum Bureau, in Boston, Mr. Barnum found time to deliver some thirty times, a lecture on "The World and How to Live in It," going as far east as Thomaston, Maine, and west to Leavenworth, Kansas. When the tour was finished ...

— A Unique Story of a Marvellous Career. Life of Hon. Phineas T. • Joel Benton

... your bed. Here's your 'burry,'" pointing to a bureau with a bookcase on the top. He threw open the next door. "This is Linforth's room. By the way, you speak English ...

— The Broken Road • A. E. W. Mason

... a moment motionless, breathing loud, as if it were a joy to breathe free from restraint; and then, lifting the light, and gliding to the adjoining room, she unlocked a bureau in the corner, and bent over a small casket, which she ...

— Lucretia, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... know how I ever came to do it, Scarborough. Oh, I'm a dog, a dog! When I started to come here my mother took me up to her bedroom and opened the drawer of her bureau and took out a savings-bank book—it had a credit of twelve hundred dollars. 'Do you see that?' she said. 'When you were born I began to put by as soon as I was able—every cent I could from the butter and the eggs—to educate my boy. And now ...

— The Cost • David Graham Phillips

... decided to take short order with the pernicious literature of the Pacifists. In future all such documents are to be submitted to the Press Bureau before publication. A howl of derisive laughter greeted the HOME SECRETARY'S announcement, but when Mr. SNOWDEN essayed to move the adjournment, although he and his friends were joined by some of the Scotch and Irish malcontents, the total muster was only thirty-three, and the motion ...

— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 153, Nov 21, 1917 • Various

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