Definition of "civil service" []

• Those branches of public service that are not legislative, judicial, or military and in which employment is usually based on competitive examination. (noun)
• The entire body of persons employed by the civil branches of a government. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "He studied jurisprudence at Bonn, Heidelberg, and Berlin (1827-30), entered the Prussian civil service as ausculator (1830), travelled through France (1833) and Italy"
• "Stuhlweissenburg and Fuenfkirchen, he applied for a civil service position in Ofen but was unsuccessful."
• "Trier (1844), visited England (1846), became chamber-president in the land court (1848) and counsel of appeal (1849) at Cologne until his retirement from civil service in 1875."