civil service
19
3.0
- noun
- /ˈsɪvəl ˈsɜrvɪs/
- Formal
:
función pública
- To become a part of the civil service, candidates must pass a competitive examination to prove their qualifications.
- civil service jobs
- civil service positions
- civil service sector
We've had four female permanent secretaries leave the civil service in the last few months.
- We've had four female permanent secretaries leave the civil service in the last few months.
- We're talking about an impartial, non corrupt, competent civil service.
- Nonetheless, the civil service puts puts you into a politically neutral space.
- And disbanding the Iraqi civil service was out of fear that they might be loyal to Saddam Hussein.
- So left and just got a job in a warehouse, went on from there to work in the DVLA civil service.
- And within the civil service, even if you were very high up, the bully pulpit may not be yours.
- So no one I moved, I worked in civil service for a while and then when that contract was up I moved to Belfast.
- Sri Lanka's longstanding high debt and large civil service have for a long time contributed to very high budget deficits.
- Your entire civil service as you would have in the various departments do not have incentives to do things more rapidly.
- This is a guy doing a civil service job in producing this report.
- We don't the civil service, and I know it's people's jobs, but the civil service, that's taxpayers money.
- From, from more council jobs or more jobs in the civil service.
- And you might think that the toughest and most sceptical audience here would be the the civil service economists in the exchequer.
Examples
-
Chinese participation in the Hong Kong civil service has steadily increased ever since.
Academic text (1990) -
Subendu had explained that his father's heart condition required early retirement from a high civil service post.
Fiction book (2002) -
Well, I have my civil service test today.
-
Before the war, the British state was very powerful, and an independent civil service was well established.
Academic text (1990) -
The vote, too, slowly opened public office and, even more important, jobs in civil service.
Academic text (1992) -
Accountability of government officials and the civil service for public funds.
Academic text (1992) -
The man then advised him to join the colonial civil service and go to Africa.
Fiction book (1997) -
However, these tests were designed to allow people to have civil service jobs based on merit.
Blog text (25) -
We have a UK civil service with UK ministerial oversight.
-
The regime's promise to reform the bureaucracy did not materialize, and instead the civil service grew in size and inefficiency.
Academic text (1990)
Synonyms
39
3.7
Work for the government to help people
Surface Forms
Morphology
The institutional meaning ('government administration employees') is directly and predictably composed from 'civil' (relating to citizens/public affairs) + 'service' (an organization providing public functions). This compositional pattern is common cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the MWE's basic meaning.
Etymology
Civil service comes from civil meaning 'citizen', not 'soldier', and service meaning work for others. Long ago, officials were often chosen from ordinary people by exams and formed a professional group of government workers, so today civil service means the regular government employees chosen for their skill.