Meaning of section in English:

section

Pronunciation /?s?k?(?)n/

Translate section into Spanish

noun

1Any of the more or less distinct parts into which something is or may be divided or from which it is made up.
‘I unscrewed every section of copper pipe, from the roof tank to the hot-water cylinder’
- ‘The collection is divided into four sections with each section arranged around a particular subject.’
- ‘Part down the middle, then divide hair into sections, front to back.’
- ‘Inside it was divided into two distinct sections.’
- ‘This exhibition is divided into two sections, the first section involves 16 participants tutored by Bridget O'Hara.’
- ‘The film is divided into three distinct sections.’
- ‘After its eight-bar introduction, the movement divides into three distinct sections plus a coda.’
- ‘The menu is divided into two distinct sections but you can pick and choose accordingly.’
- ‘The supply network to Johannesburg consumers is to be divided into 40 sections, with one section being converted at a time.’
- ‘The descriptions of the varied habits of thomsonite presented below are divided into two sections based on cavity size.’
- ‘It was basically a giant wedge divided into three sections front to back.’
- ‘After lifting and dividing, replant sections from outside the clump and discard the old center.’
- ‘A team of 12 engineers and contractors spent six weeks using heavy cutting gear to separate the two sections.’
- ‘This tent was separated into two sections by a heavy partition.’
- ‘Use the crimping plates on small sections of the separated pieces down the length of your hair.’
- ‘Where there is a non-smoking pub there should also be one that is smoking (or separated sections in the same pub.)’
- ‘Separate sections have been designed for younger children and toddlers.’
- ‘The room has three separate sections with different temperatures.’
- ‘If anything the park should be bigger, with separate novice and expert sections, seating for parents, toilets and a burger bar.’
- ‘They say that the buildings and structures enhance the look of the gardens and help to break them up into separate sections.’
- ‘There were arches in the room and some audience members were sitting in separate sections.’
segment, part, component, division, piece, portion, length, element, module, unit, constituent, bit, slice, fraction, fragment
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1. 1.1A relatively distinct part of a book, newspaper, statute, or other document.
  ‘the New York Times business section’
  ‘this last section of the questionnaire relates solely to training’
  ‘I mean, the odd thing is that Clinton devoted a large section of the book to his childhood.’
  ‘The book is divided into three main sections covering background, methods, and applications.’
  ‘Perhaps you could include a small section devoted to explaining the 100 most common acronyms.’
  ‘It includes a full section devoted to the years 1937-1945.’
  ‘Well, that must be right because those two sections apply in civil cases.’
  ‘The book's three sections cover ambiguity in three areas: news, measurement, and explanation.’
  ‘She had taken all reasonable steps to take and act on advice as required by section 14A.’
  ‘But the last section entitled " Balzac the observer " has universal relevance.’
  ‘The section titled Structural Integrity addresses the structural integrity of the computational approach.’
  ‘Now, Justice Sully assumed that section 11A applied, did he not?’
  ‘His report mentioned one section which dealt with the historical evolution of the village.’
  ‘Food Safety is separated into sections in the report.’
  ‘And I don't separate sections of posts with rows of asterisks, either.’
  ‘Timetables of express and passenger trains of all the four railway zones have been provided in separate sections.’
  ‘You can click on separate sections for news and image searches - a fairly standard feature these days.’
  ‘The profile information is presented individually town-by-town with a separate section devoted to our rural areas.’
  ‘But Review remains a separate section and it's all the better for it.’
  ‘A separate section is devoted to the various types of fishing nets used by fishermen communities in the south.’
  ‘Divided into five distinct sections, each portion emphasises different aspects of Shingon Buddhism.’
  ‘It is divided into six sections, with each section containing six chapters, for a total of 36 chapters.’
  ‘Like Stryk, he divided the book into sections and did not arrange the poems specifically by previous book titles.’
  subdivision, part, chapter, subsection, division, portion, component, bit, passage, clause, act, scene, episode, instalment
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2. 1.2North American A measure of land, equal to one square mile.
  ‘Here they talk about acres, but in West Texas we measure land in sections.’
  ‘With the help of other concerned citizens, they eventually succeeded in gaining a permit to graze their flocks on 14 sections of Forest Service land.’
3. 1.3North American A particular district of a town.
  ‘a residential section of the capital’
  ‘I decided to walk through the Islamic section of town to Cairo's infamous bazaar and check it out for myself.’
  ‘In large cities, such as Kano or Katsina, Hausa live either in the old sections of town or in newer quarters built for civil servants.’
  ‘In the intervening three months, yet another airplane crashed, this time into a residential section of New York City.’
  ‘They rented a home by the Tar River, right between the black and white sections of town.’
  ‘When the vehicle passes through a Brazilian section of town, the text shifts to Portuguese.’
  ‘We also learned that the Bohemian section of town was where young urbanites came to feel cool.’
  district, quarter, part, sector, zone, precinct, borough, locality, neighbourhood, side
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4. 1.4New Zealand A building plot.
  ‘And another project is clearing weeds off the section here, building steps and planting a veggie garden.’
  ‘As post war building produced a demand for more sites, sections shrank even smaller.’
  plot, piece, patch, tract, area, section, allotment
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2A distinct group within a larger body of people or things.
‘the non-parliamentary section of the party’
- ‘Last year Swinney, who has faced constant sniping about his leadership credentials from some sections within the party, faced down a challenge by Glasgow activist Bill Wilson.’
- ‘This was the line pursued at the time by the body politic and large sections of the media to justify a knee-jerk reaction and savage state repression.’
- ‘They accused some sections of that body of trying to frustrate the inquiry.’
- ‘Support for vouchers is growing within sections of the Democratic Party.’
- ‘Within sections of the armed forces too, a particular interpretation of religion was institutionalised.’
- ‘Cruise has just launched some new jewellery sections within its stores, and there are some really interesting individual pieces.’
- ‘There are sections within the government that are putting new and difficult demands for the GAM to fulfill.’
- ‘We recognize there is goodwill within certain sections of the government at a state level to tackle this problem.’
- ‘There exists within sections of the white electorate a deep cynicism towards the traditional political parties.’
- ‘Trimble, who said he felt euphoric after the result, vowed to try to persuade all sections of the party to support him.’
- ‘This is much more about tensions within different sections of communities.’
- ‘The ecumenism was typical of the girl and of the city, or at least of certain sections within it.’
- ‘The government has already alienated a large section of the population through existing anti-terror legislation.’
- ‘We still represent a very large section of the population.’
- ‘In the children's section of department stores and in banks there are often toys to be found.’
- ‘With that Steve walked over to the men's section of the store.’
- ‘No section of society should be deprived of an education to the highest level.’
- ‘The professional section of the bourgeoisie gradually lost its former autonomy and social distinction.’
- ‘The inmates are kept together in a dormitory kind of set up with separate sections for men and women.’
- ‘Tickets for a match must be sold in a way so that fans of rival teams occupy separate sections of a stadium.’
department, part, division, branch, sector, wing, compartment
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1. 2.1A group of players of a family of instruments within an orchestra.
  ‘the brass section’
  ‘The brass section of an orchestra typically consists of trumpets, horns, trombones, and tubas.’
  ‘The only music to be heard was some of the brass section tuning up their instruments.’
  ‘At that time, women in London could only play in the wind sections of the BBC Symphony and the English Chamber Orchestras.’
  ‘It features dialogues between piano and individual orchestra sections.’
  ‘The luxurious tunes are kept taut and alive, while all sections of the orchestra are on virtuoso form.’
  ‘The entire woodwind and brass sections were all off stage!’
  ‘My father believed there would be more openings for a violin player in an orchestra because the string section was bigger than any other.’
  ‘It would be idle to deny that all sections of British orchestras have become increasingly female over the past couple of decades.’
  ‘Gabel cues with care but without ostentation, he addresses sections of the orchestra and he stays with them.’
  ‘Today we find women in brass, percussion and woodwind sections, as well as the safe-havens of strings and harpdom.’
  ‘Schubert was not one to underwork his string sections and the orchestra, playing flat out for sustained periods, was most impressive.’
  ‘It is as if the string section of the orchestra suddenly decided to play its own music, disregarding everyone else.’
  ‘The body language of the orchestral string section was a bit of a give away.’
  ‘The brass quintet is a fun and whacky group made up of members of the Bournemouth Symphonic Orchestra brass section.’
  ‘He often augmented the reed or brass sections ' ensemble choruses.’
  ‘Orchestral sections were moved from one position to another in a search for perfect sound relationships.’
  ‘A platform is rigged toward the back of the stage rising over the winds and brass sections for the vocalists.’
  ‘Add a rhythm section to your youthful band with our wood and skin Tambourine.’
  ‘Add probably the best rhythm section in town right now and it's a fabulous, stirring noise.’
  ‘The cabaret was provided by the brass consort section of Shipston Town Band.’
2. 2.2in names A specified military unit.
  ‘a GHQ Signals Section’
  ‘In Bosnia, IO staff sections were formed in units below brigade.’
  ‘It is our tank sections and infantry squads that invariably make contact with hostile forces, not companies or battalions.’
  ‘Basson is still working for South Africa in its military's medical section.’
  ‘It has tested each of you as an individual and, more importantly, as part of a war fighting infantry section.’
  ‘Its military, working dog section consists of a single dog and it doesn't even belong to the Air Force.’
3. 2.3A subdivision of an army platoon.
  ‘Soldiers will be trained to deploy as individuals, sections or units.’
  ‘Due to the nature of current combat operations in Iraq, our primary mounted maneuver unit is the section.’
  ‘A unit of action may vary from a nine-man infantry section through to a 3500-person brigade.’
  ‘This latter cavalry regiment had sent one section still farther forward into Persia.’
  ‘Military and DA civilian leaders have responsibility for what their sections, units, or organizations do or fail to do.’
4. 2.4Biology A secondary taxonomic category, especially a subgenus.
  ‘Each species is classified under a sub-genus, and a section.’
  ‘At the subgeneric level, the classification of Valeriana in subgenera and sections is difficult.’
  ‘Several genera that are at times segregated from Atriplex have been variously treated as subgenera or sections, or simply placed in synonymy with Atriplex.’
  ‘According to Navarro, these taxa belong to six sections.’
  ‘Halda treated section Stenogyne as a subgenus of Gentiana.’
3mass noun The cutting of a solid by or along a plane.
1. 3.1The shape resulting from cutting a solid along a plane.
  ‘nails of round section’
2. 3.2count noun A representation of the internal structure of something as if it has been cut through vertically or horizontally.
  ‘a section of face, showing the position of the organs of speech’
  ‘This technique involves mentally dividing the image in the viewfinder up into a grid of three horizontal and vertical sections.’
  ‘The vector field represents a vertical section through a vortex ring.’
3. 3.3Surgery count noun A separation by cutting.
  ‘Obviously, if you have to deliver via Caesarian section it will take longer for you to get back on your bike.’
  ‘Once considered unthinkable, vaginal delivery after a previous caesarean section remains a safe option for many women.’
  ‘The mother had an elective cesarean section in order to ensure proper management of the airway during delivery.’
  ‘On coronal sections, a mass measuring 4 cm in diameter was observed in the right frontal lobe white matter.’
  ‘No staining in the retina or any other parts of the body was detected on sections.’
4. 3.4Biology count noun A thin slice of plant or animal tissue prepared for microscopic examination.
  ‘The animal from which the tissue sections are prepared is important.’
  ‘Immunohistochemical studies were performed using formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue sections of the cyst wall.’
  ‘Sets of transverse, serial thin sections were prepared to document growth and increase in detail.’
  ‘Serial transverse sections showed homogeneous pale red-brown parenchyma without discrete abnormality.’
  ‘At least three tissue sections from each of the 49 biopsy samples from the 15 patients considered were analyzed.’

verb

[with object]

1Divide into sections.
‘she began to section the grapefruit’
- ‘The only way to tell a dolphin's age for definite is by sectioning a tooth, said Mr Whooley.’
- ‘To prevent copying, DVDs are sectioned into blocks that are each encrypted using a content scrambling system.’
- ‘The common room was a large circular room, with three-quarters of the walls being sectioned into small little box-shaped cubby holes where university students got their usual circulars, mail, etc. etc.’
- ‘I thought about sectioning it but in the end went for the long-list system which makes me look well read.’
- ‘The space was simply sectioned with a seating area to one end and a bespoke stainless-steel kitchen to the other.’
- ‘The restrictions will apply when the pool is sectioned into lanes.’
- ‘The brush is sectioned so that the bristles appear at regular intervals around the barrel.’
- ‘I sectioned the long whiskey barrel staves with the chainsaw.’
- ‘They've already sectioned the house into a rich and poor side, they've sent a contestant to South Africa, they've made the house ‘evil’.’
1. 1.1section something offSeparate an area from a larger one.
  ‘parts of the curved balcony had been sectioned off with wrought-iron grilles’
  ‘These areas have been sectioned off because they are unsafe!’
  ‘Isis could see that each area was sectioned off into little green or brown squares according to the owner's preference.’
  ‘The gymnasium had one of those huge movable walls which they would use to section it off into smaller areas for classes.’
  ‘Some come with dividers that can section the crate off as the pup grows to its full size.’
  ‘Part of the castle is sectioned off for re-pointing to be carried out.’
  ‘All over the image the terrain has been sectioned off.’
  ‘You might also want to get some dust masks and plastic to section the room off from the rest of the house.’
  ‘Full capacity is at 800 but the hall can be sectioned off for 300.’
  ‘Curtains separated the room into three, and one third was sectioned off and occupied.’
  ‘Small areas are sectioned off where people are sleeping on mattresses on pallets.’
2. 1.2Biology Cut (animal or plant tissue) into thin slices for microscopic examination.
  ‘the specimens were embedded and serially sectioned’
  ‘The brain of each rat was sectioned in the coronals plane into 2 mm thickness pieces using a plastic model of the rat brain.’
  ‘The cartilage was sectioned into 2-mm full-thickness slices.’
  ‘The paraffin-embedded specimen was serially sectioned until the full cross-sectional area of the specimen was believed to be exposed.’
  ‘The specimen was serially sectioned and submitted entirely.’
  ‘Eight roots were sectioned longitudinally and another eight roots were sectioned transversely.’
  ‘Small specimens were sectioned in an epoxy resin matrix.’
3. 1.3Surgery Divide by cutting.
  ‘it is common veterinary practice to section the nerves to the hoof of a limping horse’
  ‘Because of their predominantly vertical orientation, the basilar segmental bronchi of the right lower lobe are routinely sectioned transversely on CT.’
  ‘On sectioning the liver, diffuse tan miliary lesions surrounded by dark red hemorrhagic tissue were seen.’
  ‘If these foci are sectioned perfectly, diagnosis is not difficult because the parallel arrangement of the prongs is obvious.’
  ‘The vastus medialis muscle, which completely surrounds the patella in the pig, was sectioned to expose the articular capsule.’
  ‘At autopsy, the heart was longitudinally sectioned through the left atrium and left ventricle.’
2British Commit (someone) compulsorily to a psychiatric hospital in accordance with a section of a mental health act.
‘should she be sectioned and forced back into hospital?’
- ‘She was sectioned to a mental hospital in Marrakesh.’
- ‘He was sectioned to Green Lane Hospital in 2002 although he escaped regularly and went home.’
- ‘It is therefore highly unlikely that he will be abstinent from alcohol unless he was sectioned and in a locked environment.’
- ‘He was taken from his home in Brentwood and sectioned under the mental health act.’
- ‘In 2003, he was sectioned under the mental health act and diagnosed as suffering from manic depression.’
commit, certify, section, hospitalize, institutionalize
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