assign

Formsassigns, assigning, assigned

Pluralassigns

1. 1
   verbtransitive

   To allot or give something to a person or group as a task or duty.

   Managers assign tasks based on each member's strengths.

   The editor assigned three articles to the new reporter.

   Similarallocate, allot, delegate, give, distribute

   Note

   Here the verb hands out work, and it takes two shapes: you assign a task to someone, or you assign someone to a post. William Hickling Prescott's commander "assigned his men to their several posts" (1857). The one doing the assigning need not be a person. In Emerson Hough's The Purchase Price (1910), a captain curses "the fate which had assigned such a duty."

2. 2
   verbtransitive

   To designate or set something apart for a particular purpose.

   The city will assign part of the budget to road repairs.

   Each color was assigned a specific meaning on the map.

   Similarallocate, allot, designate, earmark, give

   Note

   Latin assignō joined the prefix ad- with signō, "mark, sign", so the picture behind the verb is marking something out for a use. That picture fits here most closely: a day assigned for trial is a date marked off for one purpose. The thing set apart is the direct object, and the purpose usually follows with for or to.

3. 3
   verbtransitive

   To appoint or select a person for an office or position.

   The court will assign a lawyer to defendants who cannot afford one.

   She was assigned to the embassy in Rome last spring.

   Similarappoint, post, station, name

4. 4
   verbtransitive

   To make another person the legal holder of property, a right, or a similar interest.

   Under the contract, either party may assign its rights to a third party.

   The author assigned the copyright to the publishing house.

   Similartransfer, convey, cede

   Note

   Lawyers use the verb for handing over rights as well as things. A contract may let a party assign its rights to a third party, and an author can assign a copyright to a publisher. The receiver acquires the entitlement the original holder had. That receiver is the assignee, or in older English simply an assign.

5. 5
   verbtransitive

   To give a particular value to a variable.

   The function assigns the result to a temporary variable.

   You can assign multiple values to an array in one statement.

   Note

   Programmers read the verb in a fixed direction: the value is the object, and the variable follows to. So "we assign 100 to x" leaves x holding 100. From then on the name returns that value wherever it is used, until a later statement reassigns it.

6. 6
   verbtransitive

   To classify something by placing it in a particular category, as a species in a family or a case in a priority level.

   Biologists assign newly found species to existing families.

   Each case was assigned a priority level by the triage nurse.

   Similarclassify, categorize, allocate, give

7. 7
   verbtransitive

   To categorize a person as belonging to the male or female sex, typically at birth.

   Hospitals assign sex at birth based on visible anatomy.

   The child was assigned male at birth.

   Note

   An LGBTQ usage that narrows the sorting meaning to a single category. It appears almost entirely in the passive, followed by an adjective and a time phrase: assigned male at birth, assigned female at birth. The choice of verb matters, because it presents sex as a classification someone made rather than a fact simply stated.

8. 8
   nouncountable

   A person to whom property or a right is transferred; an assignee.

   The agreement binds the company, its successors, and assigns.

   As the assign, she assumed every obligation the original holder had carried.

   Similarassignee

   Oppositeassignor

   Note

   The person at the receiving end of the legal transfer. Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol (1843) sets the word in its natural company: Scrooge was Marley's "sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole assign, his sole residuary legatee." The run of legal titles makes the point that everything Marley left passed to Scrooge.

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