How to Use the civil service in a Sentence

the civil service

noun
  • Here’s hoping a sounder reform of the civil service can now begin.
    — Bloomberg Opinion, Twin Cities, 14 May 2025
  • One of Hitler’s first steps was to take over the civil service, purging it of non-Nazis.
    — Robert B. Reich, Hartford Courant, 2 Apr. 2024
  • Starmer has denied that anyone in his office put pressure on the civil service.
    — ABC News, 27 Apr. 2026
  • The slump in private sector jobs is drawing people to the civil service.
    — Anniek Bao, CNBC, 17 Dec. 2025
  • In one such low moment, he was ignited by the dream of admission to the civil service.
    — Hari Kumar Atul Loke, New York Times, 28 June 2023
  • The anxiety across the civil service at this hour is rightly earned and has no sign of slackening.
    — Philip Elliott, TIME, 3 Feb. 2025
  • Next comes the fun of trying to reform the civil service with shady Blaine fighting them at every turn.
    — Kelly Lawler, USA Today, 6 Nov. 2025
  • Those who are ejected from meetings will now be heard by the civil service commission, Krause said.
    — Rachel Royster, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 10 Feb. 2026
  • Walter, meanwhile, secure in the civil service, retains a central role in the weapons buildup.
    — Andrew Cockburn, Harper’s Magazine , 20 Jan. 2021
  • Agrawal has taken the civil service exam four times without success.
    — Tara Subramaniam, CNN, 27 May 2023
  • One reminds us of why the civil service existed in the first place and the other of the civil service in its heyday.
    — Hanna Rosin, The Atlantic, 22 Jan. 2026
  • Cummings wanted to overhaul the civil service and Britain’s planning laws.
    — Sam Knight, The New Yorker, 25 Mar. 2024
  • Still, for Black federal employees, trying to advance through the ranks of the civil service can be a bumpy road.
    — Hansi Lo Wang, NPR, 27 Apr. 2025
  • Annie was then forced to resign from her job, because married women were not allowed to hold positions in the civil service.
    — Literary Hub, 27 Oct. 2025
  • Most people who work for the federal government are in what’s called the classified service or the civil service.
    — Isaac Chotiner, The New Yorker, 18 July 2023
  • According to the lawsuit, the civil service rules state that a person must have spent five years as a supervisor and achieved the rank of lieutenant.
    — Jennifer Borrasso, CBS News, 21 Apr. 2026
  • Moreover, these groups have allies in the civil service, the judiciary, and the military.
    — Renad Mansour, Foreign Affairs, 26 Mar. 2024
  • Taking a chief’s exam is required in order to be on the civil service eligible list for the position.
    — Lance Reynolds, Boston Herald, 24 Feb. 2024
  • Sloss went on to join the civil service as a teacher and later, in the British air force, became a noncommissioned officer.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 28 May 2024
  • When Prohibition agents were placed under the civil service, 60% of them failed their civil service tests.
    — Richard F. Hamm, The Conversation, 20 Feb. 2026
  • These are Americans who have come into the civil service from a range of backgrounds and a range of experiences and geographies.
    — How To Save A Country, The New Republic, 8 June 2023
  • Her guests were statisticians and economists in the civil service, the sort of people who write public reports on out-of-pocket medical expenses.
    — Alex Traub, New York Times, 9 Mar. 2023
  • While there is bipartisan agreement on the need to reform the civil service, unions and federal workers have complained about Musk's blunt-force approach.
    — Alexandra Alper and Tim Reid, USA TODAY, 28 Feb. 2025
  • Congress should act now to protect the civil service system through legislation that prevents Schedule F or similar schemes.
    — John C. Ronquillo, Baltimore Sun, 9 Dec. 2024
  • Most of the 8,000 affected people are at the highest level of the civil service, GS-15.
    — Brittney Melton, NPR, 4 June 2026
  • But Democrats never succeeded in enacting legislation to strengthen protections for the civil service system as a matter of law.
    — Jonathan Swan, BostonGlobe.com, 15 Sep. 2023
  • After the Civil War, the federal government’s footprint expanded, and the civil service began to change.
    — Hanna Rosin, The Atlantic, 22 Jan. 2026
  • Nearly all of the 8,000 people affected are at the highest level of the civil service, known as GS-15.
    — Andrea Hsu, NPR, 3 June 2026
  • Around 30 percent of the federal workforce are veterans, and the VA is the single largest employer of veterans in the civil service.
    — John W. Dean, MSNBC Newsweek, 7 Apr. 2025
  • Riedl compares the agency to the civil service, where nonpartisan staff stay regardless of whether the president is a Democrat or Republican.
    — Barbara Sprunt, NPR, 6 June 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'the civil service.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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