- One who keeps, or is intrusted with, secrets. - A person employed to write orders, letters, dispatches,
public or private papers, records, and the like; an official scribe,
amanuensis, or writer; one who attends to correspondence, and transacts
other business, for an association, a public body, or an individual. - An officer of state whose business is to superintend and
manage the affairs of a particular department of government, and who is
usually a member of the cabinet or advisory council of the chief
executive; as, the secretary of state, who conducts the correspondence
and attends to the relations of a government with foreign courts; the
secretary of the treasury, who manages the department of finance; the
secretary of war, etc. - A piece of furniture, with conveniences for writing and
for the arrangement of papers; an escritoire. - The secretary bird.