Definition of: station

(stā′shən) noun
1. A place where a person or thing usually stands or is; an assigned location.
2. The headquarters of some official person or body of men: a police station.
3. An established building or place serving as a starting point, stage, stopping place, or post; specifically, a building for the accommodation of passengers or freight, as on a railroad or bus line; terminal; depot.
4. Social condition; rank; standing.
5. Mil. A military post; the place to which an individual, unit, or ship is assigned for duty.
6. The administrative offices, studios, and technical installations of a radio broadcasting unit operating on its assigned frequency.
7. Mining A recess in a shaft or passage of a mine.
8. Austral. A cattle or sheep run with its appertaining buildings and grounds.
9. In surveying, a point around or from which measurements of angles or distances are made; also, the distance adopted for the standard length.
10. Eccl. a A stopping place, as a church, shrine, etc., for a solemn religious procession, at which certain prayers are said. b A Station of the Cross.
—v.t. To assign to a station; set in position. [<F <L statio, -onis <status, pp. of stare stand] Synonym (noun): depot. Properly, a train stops at a station to take on and discharge passengers or freight. Freight is kept in a depot, which is a storage room or a storehouse. However, the station and the depot were so often located in one building in the early days of railroads that the word depot, which formerly was thought to be more elegant but now has less dignity than station, came to be used for both. See PLACE.