DictionaryAI

consent

kuhn-SENT/kənˈsɛnt/

Formsconsents, consenting, consented

7 meanings of consent

Practice

  1. 1
    verbintransitive
    To express willingness or give permission for something to happen.

    Both parents must consent before the school trip can go ahead.

    The landowner finally consented to the survey crossing his fields.

    Similaragree, assent, acquiesce, accede

    Oppositerefuse, object, decline, dissent

    Note

    The everyday verb takes to before whatever is permitted, either a noun or an -ing form: consent to the survey, consent to her practicing the piano. Consenting need not mean wanting. In Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet a speaker says "My poverty, but not my will, consents." The agreement is given under pressure, not from desire, and the verb covers both.

  2. 2
    nounintransitiveuncountable
    Voluntary agreement or permission for something to happen.

    The clinic cannot share your records without written consent.

    Researchers must obtain consent before observing the volunteers.

    Similarpermission, agreement, approval, assent, authorization

    Oppositerefusal, objection, dissent

  3. 3
    verbtransitive
    To have someone sign a form agreeing to a medical procedure or study.

    The coordinator consented every participant before the trial began.

    Junior doctors should not consent patients for operations they cannot perform themselves.

    Note

    Clinical shorthand that makes the patient the object of the verb. A doctor consents a patient, and a patient is consented to enter a study or undergo a procedure, very often in the passive. That reverses the everyday verb, where the person agreeing is the subject (she consented to the operation). Keep it to hospital and research writing. Elsewhere it reads as if the agreement were something done to someone.

  4. 4
    verbintransitive
    To be of the same mind as another person, agreeing with them in opinion or feeling.
    And Saul was consenting unto his death.
    1611, The Holy Bible, King James Version
    Flourishing many years before Wyclif, and much consenting with him in judgment.
    1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain

    Similaragree, concur

    Oppositedisagree, dissent

    Note

    This meaning stays closest to the Latin behind the word, com- "with" and sentire "to feel": to consent was to feel with someone. In older English it took with or unto. The King James Bible of 1611 says Saul "was consenting unto his death," meaning he shared the others' mind. Thomas Fuller (1655) describes a writer "much consenting with" Wyclif "in judgment." Agree or concur now does this work.

Less common meanings

  1. 5
    verbobsoletetransitive or intransitive
    To grant, allow, or assent to something.
    Note

    Here the verb takes its object directly, with no to. In The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce (1643), John Milton complains that interpreters "will not consent it to be a true story," meaning they will not grant that it is true. The construction is obsolete. Modern English needs a preposition or a clause instead: consent to something, or agree that it is true.

  2. 6
    nounobsoleteintransitiveuncountable
    Unity or agreement of opinion, sentiment, or inclination among people.

    By common consent the assembly rose as one to honor the fallen captain.

    And they all with one consent began to make excuse.
    1611, The Holy Bible, King James Version
    Note

    The noun beside the "same mind" verb names an accord that people share, not a permission one person grants. The King James Bible of 1611 has guests who "all with one consent began to make excuse." No one is allowing anything. Every one of them is of one accord. When older texts use consent this way, it is something a group holds together, not something one person gives another.

  3. 7
    nounobsoleteintransitiveuncountable
    Advice or counsel given to another person.
    Note

    A modern reader would almost certainly misread this obsolete meaning, because every living sense of consent involves saying yes. If an old text has someone acting on another's consent, try counsel in its place. If the passage then makes sense, advice is meant, not agreement. In your own writing, use counsel or advice.

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of consent apart? Answer 2 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origin

Recorded in Middle English from around 1225, it was borrowed from Old French consentir, from Latin cōnsentīre ("to agree, to assent"), formed from com- ("with") plus sentiō ("to feel").