"circumlocution office" meaning in English

{
  "etymology_text": "Introduced in Charles Dickens' novel Little Dorrit.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "circumlocution offices",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "circumlocution office (plural circumlocution offices)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "c. 1857, Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit, published 1884, page 110:",
          "text": "The Circumlocution Office was (as everybody knows without having to be told) the most important Department under government. […] It was equally impossible to do the plainest right and to undo the plainest wrong without the express authority of the Circumlocution Office.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1869, George William Curtis, “Civil-Service Reform”, in Addresses and reports on the reform of the civil service of the United States, published 1894, page 22:",
          "text": "Then it is said that the reform would establish a circumlocution office and restore the great official practice of how not to do it. Now, I think it would be an extremely clever circumlocution office that would practise that principle more zealously than the present system does.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1988 September 28, Nat Hentoff, “The circumlocution office”, in Washington Post:",
          "text": "In Westchester County, N.Y., a foster parent pleaded with the Circumlocution Office not to return a 10-month old child to her natural mother, who kept missing visits, was being beaten by her husband and had a record of mental illness. The infant, however, was returned, and was beaten to death.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1997 January 22, Deaglán de Bréadún, “Plenty of double-speak when it comes to bilingualism”, in Irish Times, Dublin, page 1:",
          "text": "A survey of the implementation of State policy for the promotion of bilingualism shows the spirit of the Circumlocution Office is alive and well in the Irish public sector.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Any organization that wastes time on bureaucracy to the detriment of its actual business."
      ],
      "id": "en-circumlocution_office-en-noun-dOjsw2D0",
      "links": [
        [
          "organization",
          "organization"
        ],
        [
          "bureaucracy",
          "bureaucracy"
        ],
        [
          "detriment",
          "detriment"
        ],
        [
          "business",
          "business"
        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "Circumlocution Office"
        }
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Little Dorrit"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "circumlocution office"
}

{
  "etymology_text": "Introduced in Charles Dickens' novel Little Dorrit.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "circumlocution offices",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "circumlocution office (plural circumlocution offices)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms derived from Dickensian works",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "c. 1857, Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit, published 1884, page 110:",
          "text": "The Circumlocution Office was (as everybody knows without having to be told) the most important Department under government. […] It was equally impossible to do the plainest right and to undo the plainest wrong without the express authority of the Circumlocution Office.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1869, George William Curtis, “Civil-Service Reform”, in Addresses and reports on the reform of the civil service of the United States, published 1894, page 22:",
          "text": "Then it is said that the reform would establish a circumlocution office and restore the great official practice of how not to do it. Now, I think it would be an extremely clever circumlocution office that would practise that principle more zealously than the present system does.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1988 September 28, Nat Hentoff, “The circumlocution office”, in Washington Post:",
          "text": "In Westchester County, N.Y., a foster parent pleaded with the Circumlocution Office not to return a 10-month old child to her natural mother, who kept missing visits, was being beaten by her husband and had a record of mental illness. The infant, however, was returned, and was beaten to death.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1997 January 22, Deaglán de Bréadún, “Plenty of double-speak when it comes to bilingualism”, in Irish Times, Dublin, page 1:",
          "text": "A survey of the implementation of State policy for the promotion of bilingualism shows the spirit of the Circumlocution Office is alive and well in the Irish public sector.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Any organization that wastes time on bureaucracy to the detriment of its actual business."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "organization",
          "organization"
        ],
        [
          "bureaucracy",
          "bureaucracy"
        ],
        [
          "detriment",
          "detriment"
        ],
        [
          "business",
          "business"
        ]
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Little Dorrit"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "Circumlocution Office"
    }
  ],
  "word": "circumlocution office"
}