CIVIL SERVICE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does civil service mean? 

• CIVIL SERVICE (noun)
  The noun CIVIL SERVICE has 1 sense:

1. government workers; usually hired on the basis of competitive examinations

  Familiarity information: CIVIL SERVICE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CIVIL SERVICE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Government workers; usually hired on the basis of competitive examinations

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Hypernyms ("civil service" is a kind of...):

government officials; officialdom (people elected or appointed to administer a government)

Meronyms (members of "civil service"):

civil servant (a public official who is a member of the civil service)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "civil service"):

Whitehall (the British civil service)

Holonyms ("civil service" is a member of...):

bureaucracy; bureaucratism (nonelective government officials)

 Context examples 

In desperation, all but ready to surrender, to make a truce with fate until he could get a fresh start, he took the civil service examinations for the Railway Mail.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)