OF'FICE, n. [L. officium; ob and facio, to make or do.]

1. A particular duty, charge or trust conferred by public authority and for a public purpose; an employment undertaken by commission or authority from government or those who administer it. Thus we speak of the office of secretary of state, of treasurer, of a judge, of a sherif, of a justice of the peace, &c. Offices are civil, judicial, ministerial, executive, legislative, political, municipal, diplomatic, military, ecclesiastical, &c.
2. A duty, charge or trust of a sacred nature, conferred by God himself; as, the office of priest, in the Old Testament, and that of the apostles, in the New Testament. Inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify my office. Rom. xi.
3. Duty or employment of a private nature; as, the office of a midwife. Exod. i.
4. That which is performed, intended or assigned to be done by a particular thing, or that which any thing is fitted to perform; answering to duty in intelligent beings. We enjoy health when the several organs of the body perform their respective offices. In this experiment, the several intervals of the teeth of the comb do the office of so many prisms. Newton.
5. Business; particular employment. Hesperus, whose office is to bring / Twilight upon the earth. Milton.
6. Act of good or ill voluntarily tendered; usually in a good sense; as, kind offices; offices of pity; pious offices.
7. Act of worship. Shak.
8. Formulary of devotion. The Lord's prayer, the ten commandments, and the creed, is a very good office for children if they are not fitted for more regular offices. Taylor.
9. A house or apartment in which public officers and others transact business; as, the register's office; a lawyer's office.
10. In architecture, an apartment appropriated for the necessary business or occasions of a palace or nobleman's house. The word is used also for a building pertaining to a farm. Encyc. Cyc.
11. In the canon law, a benefice which has no jurisdiction annexed to it. Encyc.
12. The person or persons intrusted with particular duties of a public nature. This office [of quarter-master-general] not to have the disposal of public money, except small occasional sums. Marshall.

To perform; to do; to discharge. [Not used.] Shak.

1. That which a person does, either voluntarily or by appointment, for, or with reference to, others; customary duty, or a duty that arises from the relations of man to man; as, kind offices, pious offices.
   
   

   I would I could do a good office between you. Shak.

2. To perform, as the duties of an office; to discharge.
   
   
   [Obs.] Shak.
3. A special duty, trust, charge, or position, conferred by authority and for a public purpose; a position of trust or authority; as, an executive or judical office; a municipal office.
4. A charge or trust, of a sacred nature, conferred by God himself; as, the office of a priest under the old dispensation, and that of the apostles in the new.
   
   

   Inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office. Rom. xi. 13.

5. That which is performed, intended, or assigned to be done, by a particular thing, or that which anything is fitted to perform; a function; -- answering to duty in intelligent beings.
   
   

   They [the eyes] resign their office and their light. Shak.

   Hesperus, whose office is to bring
   Twilight upon the earth. Milton.

   In this experiment the several intervals of the teeth of the comb do the office of so many prisms. Sir I. Newton.

6. The place where a particular kind of business or service for others is transacted; a house or apartment in which public officers and others transact business; as, the register's office; a lawyer's office.
7. The company or corporation, or persons collectively, whose place of business is in an office; as, I have notified the office.
8. The apartments or outhouses in which the domestics discharge the duties attached to the service of a house, as kitchens, pantries, stables, etc.
   
   
   [Eng.]

   As for the offices, let them stand at distance. Bacon.

9. Any service other than that of ordination and the Mass; any prescribed religious service.
   
   

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

   Holy office. Same as Inquisition, n., 3. -- Houses of office. Same as def. 7 above. Chaucer. -- Little office (R.C.Ch.), an office recited in honor of the Virgin Mary. -- Office bearer, an officer; one who has a specific office or duty to perform. -- Office copy (Law), an authenticated or certified copy of a record, from the proper office. See Certified copies, under Copy. Abbott. -- Office- found (Law), the finding of an inquest of office. See under Inquest. -- Office holder. See Officeholder in the Vocabulary