Bū'reau, n.
(bū'ro, 114), n. [Fr. bureau, a writing table, desk, office, O. Fr. equivalent to bure, drugget, with which originally a writing table was covered, Sp. bureo, a court of justice, from the Fr. word.]
Sense 1. Originally, a desk or writing table, with drawers for papers.
For not the desk with silver nails, Nor bureau of expense, Nor standish well japanned, avails To writing of good sense. Swift.
Sense 2. The place where a bureau is used, or the office where business is transacted.
Sense 3. A department for the transaction of business by a public functionary; the body of subordinate officers in a department who labor under the direction of a chief.
On the continent of Europe, the highest departments, in most countries, have the name of bureau; 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.” In Spanish, bureo denotes a court of justice for the trial of persons belonging to the king's household.
Sense 4. A chest of drawers for clothes, &c., especially when made an ornamental piece of furniture. This sense comes naturally from the first, the same name being retained for a modified form of the article. [U. S.]
Bureau system. See BUREAUCRACY.