agency

Word family

a·gen·cy /ˈeɪdʒənsi/ W3 noun (plural agencies) [countableC]

1 BBa business that provides a particular service for people or organizations 代办处，代理处，经销处，中介处

an advertising/employment/travel etc agency

a local housing agency

一家当地房屋中介

2 PGBBan organization or department, especially within a government, that does a specific job 机构；〔尤指政府内的〕局，部，处

a UN agency responsible for helping refugees

负责为难民提供帮助的联合国机构

the Environmental Protection Agency

环保局

3. by/through the agency of somebody formalHELP being done as the result of someone’s help 在某人的帮助下

Examples from the Corpus

by/through the agency of somebody• Dubos started from the assumption that all organic matter added to the soil eventually undergoes decomposition through the agency of micro-organisms.• Finally, an active regional policy was introduced through the agency of the Board of Trade.• Any extra equipment or special materials he required could be obtained through the agency of the headquarters' staff.• Thrift has nearly killed her on several occasions, through the agency of old sausages, slow-punctured tyres, rusty blades.• It operates through the agencies of the different control systems such as the autonomic nervous system, hormonal system, immune system etc.• It is then enforced and upheld by the agencies of the state.

Examples from the Corpus

agency• In my government agency, we have independence-as an office, and as respected individuals within that agency.• Government agencies are created to perform according to different criteria from private business.• a car rental agency• Then, of course, the whole process of formal education is a crucial socialising agency.• However the FBI-style agency will not conduct its own investigations or prosecutions, although many Whitehall insiders believe this could eventually happen.• There is no question but that agency rulemaking is lawmaking in any functional or realistic sense of the term...• The study will have immediate relevance both in strengthening the capacity of the agencies dealing with the crisis and through transferability elsewhere.• The UN agency is responsible for helping refugees.

an advertising/employment/travel etc agency• Two years ago, an advertising agency plastered the Paris Metro stations with posters featuring kissing couples for a soft drink promotion.• An engineering plant and an advertising agency are different and this difference will be reflected in their organisational design.• In that case an advertising agency telephoned a transparency library with whom the agency had never previously dealt.• At 18 he took a job as a junior copywriter for an advertising agency.• A city official put his arm around a developer; the chief executive of an advertising agency greeted a banker.• Branson had arranged to see an advertising agency about Oldfield producing music for a commercial for Dulux paint.• This company, at first attached to an advertising agency, later became an independent public relations consultancy.• One Harvard dealer had registered with an employment agency which stupidly sent his curriculum vitae to Harvard.

From Longman Business Dictionary