noun
commissariat
kah-mih-SAIR-ee-ut/ˌkɑːmɪˈseriət/
A military department managing essential supplies.
The commissariat supplies the troops with food and fresh uniforms.
Etymology
The officials behind French commissariat were commissaries, people entrusted with special duties. Their military responsibility for food, stores, and transport explains why the word names an army's supply department.
In context
the commissariat Department almost every civilian occupation is represented in this huge Army
More examples
- The captain asks the commissariat for more blankets.
- Delays at the commissariat leave the camp short of flour.
- Separate commissariats serve the two armies.
Forms
commissariat · commissariats
commissary noun — An official responsible for military supplies.
Similar words
- supply department
- May supply civilian organizations as well as military forces.
- quartermaster corps
- Names an organized military branch responsible for supply services.