section

Universal Words noun, verb noun part / piece 1 [C] any of the parts into which sth is divided: That section of the road is still closed. * The library has a large biology section. * the tail section of the plane 2 [C] a separate part of a structure from which the whole can be put together: The shed comes in sections that you assemble yourself. of document / book 3 [C] a separate part of a document, book, etc: These issues will be discussed more fully in the next section. * the sports section of the newspaper * The report has a section on accidents at work. group of people 4 [C] a separate group within a larger group of people: an issue that will affect large sections of the population * the brass section of an orchestra seealsoRHYTHMSECTION of organization 5 [C] a department in an organization, institution, etc: He's the director of the finance section. * the section of the company dealing with customer services diagram 6 [C] a drawing or diagram of sth as it would look if it were cut from top to bottom or from one side to the other: The illustration shows a section through a leaf. * The architect drew the house in section. seealsoCROSSSECTION medical 7 [C,U] (medical) the act of cutting or separating sth in an operation: The surgeon performed a section (= made a cut) on the vein. seealsoCAESAREAN 8 [C] (medical, biology) a very thin flat piece cut from body tissue to be looked at under a MICROSCOPE: to examine a section from the kidney verb [VN] medical / biology 1 (medical) to divide body tissue by cutting 2 (biology) to cut animal or plant tissue into thin slices in order to look at it under a MICROSCOPE mental patient 3 [oftenpassive] (BrE) to officially send sb with a mental illness to a PSYCHIATRIC hospital PHRASALVERBS section sth<->off to separate an area from a larger one: Parts of the town had been sectioned off.