\De*part"ment\, n. [F. d['e]partement, fr.
d['e]partir. See {Depart}, v. i.]
1. Act of departing; departure. [Obs.]
         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.