a particular charge or trust, or a dignity attended with a public function. See HONOUR.—The word is primarily used in speaking of the offices of judicature and policy; as the office of secretary of state, the office of a sheriff, of a justice of peace, &c.

OFFICE also signifies a place or apartment appointed for officers to attend in, in order to discharge their respective duties and employments; as the secretary's office, ordnance office, excise office, signet office, paper office, pipe office, fix clerks office, &c.

in Architecture, denotes all the apartments appointed for the necessary occasions of a palace or great house; as kitchen, pantries, confectionaries, &c.

in the canon law, is usual for a benefice, that has no jurisdiction annexed to it.

Duty upon OFFICES and Pensions, a branch of the king's extraordinary perpetual revenue, consisting in a payment of 1s. in the pound (over and above all other duties) out of all salaries, fees, and perquisites of offices and pensions payable by the crown. This highly popular taxation was imposed by flat. 31 Geo. II. c. 22, and is under the direction of the commissioners of the land tax.