Definition of "commissariat" [com•mis•sa•ri•at]

• A department of an army in charge of providing food and other supplies for the troops. (noun)
• A food supply. (noun)
• A major government department in the Soviet Union until 1946. (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.

• "At the same time he informed me that his Government intended to transfer the basis of the British commissariat from the French coast to Antwerp as soon as all German ships were swept off the North"
• "The church was weakest in that part which might be called the commissariat department, though Christ's commission had been entrusted to the richest nations in the world."
• "But it proved very difficult to keep them up to bringing a sufficient supply, and as they had a full share of the universal spirit of haggling, the commissariat was a very harassing and troublesome business, and as to the boys, it was evident that the experiment was not successful."