the act of cutting, or separation by cutting; as, the section of bodies.-a part separated from something; a division; a portion; a slice.-a distinct part or portion of a book or writing; a subdivision of a chapter; the division of a law or other writing; a paragraph; an article; hence, the character /, often used to denote such a division.-a distinct part of a country or people, community, class, or the like; a part of a territory separated by geographical lines, or of a people considered as distinct.-one of the portions, of one square mile each, into which the public lands of the united states are divided; one thirty-sixth part of a township. these sections are subdivided into quarter sections for sale under the homestead and preemption laws.-the figure made up of all the points common to a superficies and a solid which meet, or to two superficies which meet, or to two lines which meet. in the first case the section is a superficies, in the second a line, and in the third a point.-a division of a genus; a group of species separated by some distinction from others of the same genus; -- often indicated by the sign /.-a part of a musical period, composed of one or more phrases. see phrase.-the description or representation of anything as it would appear if cut through by any intersecting plane; depiction of what is beyond a plane passing through, or supposed to pass through, an object, as a building, a machine, a succession of strata; profile.