bureau

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A chest of drawers, especially a dresser for holding clothes.
2. n. Chiefly British A writing desk or writing table with drawers.
3. n. A government department or a subdivision of a department.
4. n. An office, usually of a large organization, that is responsible for a specific duty: a news bureau.
5. n. A business that offers information of a specified kind: a travel bureau.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A desk or writing-table with drawers for papers; an escritoire.
2. n. A chest of drawers for holding clothes and other articles. Bureaus at the present day are commonly made with an adjustable mirror standing upon them. This is a comparatively modern practice, due to a combination of the functions of the chest of drawers and the toilet-table.
3. n. An office or place where business is transacted.
4. n. A department of government for the transaction of public business. In England the term is confined to inferior and subordinate departments, and in the United States to certain subdivisions of some of the executive departments.
5. n. A division of the United States Department of Commerce and Labor, charged with a general superintendence of many matters connected with the merchant marine.

Wiktionary

1. n. Office.
2. n. Desk, usually with a cover and compartments for storing papers etc. located above the level of the writing surface rather than underneath.
3. n. US Chest of drawers for clothes.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. Originally, a desk or writing table with drawers for papers.
2. n. The place where such a bureau is used; an office where business requiring writing is transacted.
3. n. 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.
4. n. U.S. A chest of drawers for clothes, especially when made as an ornamental piece of furniture.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. an administrative unit of government
2. n. furniture with drawers for keeping clothes