Section

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /ˈsÉ›k.ʃən/
• Rhymes: -É›kʃən

Origin

From Old French, from Latin sectio ("cutting, cutting off, excision, amputation of diseased parts of the body, etc."), from sectus, past participle of secare ("to cut").

Full definition of section

Noun

1. A cutting; a part cut out from the rest of something.
2. A part, piece, subdivision of anything.
• 2013-06-28, Joris Luyendijk, Our banks are out of control, Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic ….  Until 2008 there was denial over what finance had become. …  But the scandals kept coming, and so we entered stage three – what therapists call "bargaining". A broad section of the political class now recognises the need for change but remains unable to see the necessity of a fundamental overhaul. Instead it offers fixes and patches.
3. A part of a document.
4. An act or instance of cutting.
5. A cross-section (image that shows an object as if cut along a plane).
1. (aviation) A cross-section perpendicular the longitudinal axis of an aircraft in flight.
6. (surgery) An incision or the act of making an incision.
7. (sciences) A thin slice of material prepared as a specimen for research.
8. (military) A group of 10-15 soldiers lead by a non-commissioned officer and forming part of a platoon.
9. (category theory) A right inverse.
10. (NZ) A piece of residential land usually a quarter of an acre, a plot.
11. (Canadian) A one-mile square area of land, defined by a government survey.

Synonyms

• cutting, slice, snippet
• division, part, slice, piece
• volume

Antonyms

• whole

Coordinate terms

• (aviation) waterline, buttock line

Derived terms

• cross section
• dissection
• bisection
• quarter section
• section road
• section grid

Related terms

Verb

1. To cut, divide or separate into pieces.
2. (British) To commit (a person, to a hospital, with or without their consent), as for mental health reasons. So called after various sections of legal acts regarding mental health.
• 1998, Diana Gittins, Madness in its Place: Narratives of Severalls Hospital, 1913-1997, Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-18388-8, page 45:Tribunals were set up as watchdogs in cases of compulsory detention (sectioning). ... Informal patients, however, could be sectioned, and this was often a fear of patients once they were in hospital.
• a. 2000 Lucy Johnstone, Users and Abusers of Psychiatry: A Critical Look at Psychiatric Practice, Second Edition, Routledge (2000), ISBN 978-0-415-21155-0, page xiv:The doctor then sectioned her, making her an involuntary patient, and had her moved to a secure ward.
• 2006, Mairi Colme, A Divine Dance of Madness, Chipmunkapublishing, ISBN 978-1-84747-023-2, page 5:After explaining that for 7 years, from ’88 to ’95, I was permanently sectioned under the Mental Health act, robbed of my freedom, my integrity, my rights, I wrote at the time;- ¶ ...

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