offices

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of office.

   The firm maintains regional offices in five different cities.

   Cleaners move through the empty offices long after the staff have gone home.

   Note

   A regular plural, formed with -s, that reaches beyond rooms and desks into church worship. The daily services of the breviary, one for each canonical hour, are offices too, as are special liturgies like the Office for the Dead. The same spelling is also the verb's present-tense form, so only its place in the sentence tells a reader which is meant.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of office.

   Our regional manager offices in the building next to the warehouse.

   The agency offices its field staff close to the projects they oversee.

   Note

   Two constructions share this form. With an object it means to provide someone with an office, as in an agency that offices its field staff near the projects. Without one it means simply to have an office, as when a manager offices next door. Watching for that object is also the quickest way to tell it from the plural noun with the same spelling.

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