compartment

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. One of the parts or spaces into which an area is subdivided.
2. n. A separate room, section, or chamber: a storage compartment.
3. v. To compartmentalize: "The information has not been compartmented” ( John H. Cushman, Jr.)

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A part separated from the adjoining parts by a partition or other mechanical means: as, the compartments of a steamship or of a European railway-carriage.
2. n. In art, a panel; a cartouche; a coffer; any portion of a work or design separated from the rest by a frame or molding, by being raised or sunk, or in any other way, especially to receive an inscription or a decoration of any kind: as, the compartments of a coffered ceiling; the small sculptured compartments of the portals of the cathedral of Amiens. See cut under calendar.
3. n. Specifically, in heraldry, any partition or division of the field.
4. n. A division or chamber in any part of a plant or of an animal.
5. n. In forestry, the unit of area treated in a working plan. The size and the shape of compartments are determined mainly by topographic features.

Wiktionary

1. n. A room, or section, or chamber
2. n. One of the parts in which an area is subdivided.
3. n. Part of a protein that serves a specific function.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. One of the parts into which an inclosed portion of space is divided, as by partitions, or lines.
2. n. One of the sections into which the hold of a ship is divided by water-tight bulkheads.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a partitioned section, chamber, or separate room within a larger enclosed area
2. n. a space into which an area is subdivided