delegates

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of delegate.

   The delegates debated the resolution late into the evening.

   Union delegates pressed the board for higher wages.

   Note

   A regular -s plural that carries every meaning of the noun at once: deputies acting for someone, representatives at a conference, members of some legislatures who sit without a vote, and, in programming, variables that hold a reference to a method. The same spelling is also the present-tense verb, so "the union delegates" can name people or begin a clause. What follows usually settles which.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of delegate.

   The director delegates routine approvals to her deputies.

   Whenever the workload grows, he delegates the extra reports to junior staff.

   Note

   The form used after he, she or it, and the verb behind it works two ways. It can take an object, as in she delegates the reports to junior staff, or stand alone, as in a good manager delegates. On the Internet it has a narrower use: a domain owner delegates a subdomain, handing someone else the authority to create names beneath it.

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