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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
commissary
noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A special commissary, Egidius, was sent by the pope to keep an eye on Conrad.
▪ As he wrote the commissary in 1752, he had no ambition to Presbyterianize the colony.
▪ The salads and sandwiches are prepared at a central commissary.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Commissary

Commissary \Com"mis*sa*ry\, n.; pl. Commissaries. [LL. commissarius, fr. L. commissus, p. p. of committere to commit, intrust to. See Commit.]

  1. One to whom is committed some charge, duty, or office, by a superior power; a commissioner.

    Great Destiny, the Commissary of God.
    --Donne.

  2. (Eccl.) An officer of the bishop, who exercises ecclesiastical jurisdiction in parts of the diocese at a distance from the residence of the bishop.
    --Ayliffe.

  3. (Mil.)

    1. An officer having charge of a special service; as, the commissary of musters.

    2. An officer whose business is to provide food for a body of troops or a military post; -- officially called commissary of subsistence. [U. S.] Washington wrote to the President of Congress . . . urging the appointment of a commissary general, a quartermaster general, a commissary of musters, and a commissary of artillery. --W. Irving Commissary general, an officer in charge of some special department of army service; as:

      1. The officer in charge of the commissariat and transport department, or of the ordnance store department. [Eng.]

      2. The commissary general of subsistence. [U. S.]

        Commissary general of subsistence (Mil. U. S.), the head of the subsistence department, who has charge of the purchase and issue of provisions for the army.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
commissary

mid-14c., "one to whom special duty is entrusted by a higher power," from Medieval Latin commissarius, from Latin commissus "entrusted," past participle of committere (see commit). Originally ecclesiastical; the military sense of "official in charge of supply of food, stores, transport" dates to late 15c. Hence "storeroom" (1882) and "dining room in a larger facility" (1929, American English).

Wiktionary
commissary

n. 1 A store primarily serving soldiers. 2 A cafeteria at a movie studio. 3 One to whom is committed some charge, duty, or office, by a superior power; a commissioner. 4 An officer of the bishop, who exercises ecclesiastical jurisdiction in parts of the diocese at a distance from the residence of the bishop.

WordNet
commissary
  1. n. a retail store that sells equipment and provisions to military personnel

  2. a snack bar in a film studio

Wikipedia
Commissary

A commissary is a government official charged with oversight.

In many countries, commissary is used as a police title. It often corresponds to the command of a police station, which is then known as a " commissariat". In some armed forces, commissaries are officials charged with overseeing the purchase and delivery of supplies, and they have powers of administrative and financial oversight. In this case the " commissariat" is the organization associated with the corps of commissaries.

In some countries both these roles are used, for example France uses " police commissaries" (commissaires de police) in the French National Police and "armed forces commissaries" (commissaires des armées) in the French armed forces.

Commissary is commissaire in French, commissario in Italian, Kommissar in (standard) German, Kommissär in Swiss German and Luxembourgish, comisario in Spanish, commissaris in Dutch and Flemish, komisario in Finnish.

Commissary (store)

A commissary is a store for provisions. The United States Defense Commissary Agency operates commissaries that are similar to supermarkets, providing service members with most of the same available in the United States regardless of where they are stationed abroad. Commissaries sell primarily grocery articles; other items can be purchased at a base exchange (BX) or post exchange (PX).

Usage examples of "commissary".

Winder, Commissary General of Prisoners, Baltimorean renegade and the malign genius to whose account should be charged the deaths of more gallant men than all the inquisitors of the world ever slew by the less dreadful rack and wheel.

He went to the commissary and punched orders for a small birthday cake into the machine, as he had I done for some of those early parties, so long ago.

We invite and desire that the nobility, archbishops, bishops, abbeys, convents, seignories, magistrates, and inhabitants of the republic of Poland, on the road to Posnania, and beyond it, would repair in person or by deputies, in the course of this week, or as soon after as possible, to the Prussian head-quarters, there to treat with the commander-in-chief, or the commissary at war, for the delivery of forage and provisions for the subsistence of the army, to be paid for with ready money.

He got first-rate sides of beef from the commissary for the dogs, he explained.

Albuquerque and through the lower valley, crossing the Rio so often it seemed a dozen rivers, Oppy and Groves discussed problems ranging from plutonium assembly to sugar for the commissary.

Aside from civilians like Commissary Nilis and Pila, there were much more lowly types: workers, techs, administrators.

The little food commissary in Building C charges airport prices, so Janice usually does a big shopping once a week at the Winn Dixie a half-mile down Pindo Palm Boulevard.

It seems that the Commissary at Savannah labored under the delusion that he must issue to us the same rations as were served out to the Rebel soldiers and sailors.

We laughed at them, as did the Commissary men, who, nevertheless, duplicated the rations already received, and sent them away happy and content.

He smokes a lot, orders cheap bourbon from the commissary, and drinks himself into an amnesiac stupor each night.

Grimani and informed him that you have not left the fort, and that you are even now detained in it, and that the plaintiff is at liberty, if he chooses, to send commissaries to ascertain the fact.

The two men in the barouches made themselves known to the Special Commissary of the station, to whom the aide-de-camp Fleury spoke privately.

Each march finished by midday when the men would rig their tents and sprawl in the shade while the picquets set guards, the cavalry watered horses and the commissary butchered bullocks to provide ration meat.

I mean support, food, weapons, chirurgeons, porters, boys for the luggage, commissaries, engineers.

At her house I made the acquaintance of several gamblers, and of three or four frauleins who, without any dread of the Commissaries of Chastity, were devoted to the worship of Venus, and were so kindly disposed that they were not afraid of lowering their nobility by accepting some reward for their kindness--a circumstance which proved to me that the Commissaries were in the habit of troubling only the girls who did not frequent good houses.