Buro
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 an office
"… an employment buro said on Tuesday. The retrenchments took place between November last year and March 1998, the Employment Buro of Africa's regional manager, Chris Hechter said."
- 2 a desk, usually with a cover and compartments for storing papers etc. located above the level of the writing surface rather than underneath.
"Mrs. Arp opens her school and stands 'em up by the buro to say their lessons."
- 3 a chest of drawers for clothes US
"And I went up into the spare chamber, and sort o' fixed Philury's things to the best advantage; for I knew the neighbors would be in to look at 'em. And I was a standin' there as calm and happy as the buro or table, ..."
Example
More examples"… an employment buro said on Tuesday. The retrenchments took place between November last year and March 1998, the Employment Buro of Africa's regional manager, Chris Hechter said."
Etymology
Borrowed from French bureau (“desk”, earlier “coarse cloth (as desk cover), baize”), from Old French burel (“woolen cloth”), diminutive of *bure (compare Middle French bure (“coarse woolen cloth”), French bourre (“hair, fluff”)), from Late Latin burra (“wool, fluff, shaggy cloth, coarse fabric”); akin to Ancient Greek βερβέριον (berbérion, “shabby garment”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.