resignation
Pluralresignations
- 1The act of formally giving up a job, office, or position.
His resignation took effect at the end of the month.
The board accepted her resignation without objection.
Similardeparture, exit, abdication
Oppositeappointment
Note
The noun is simply resign plus -ation. It came into English through Middle English resignacion, from Old French resignation and Medieval Latin resignātiō, and every other sense grows from this one. A resignation is something people offer, demand or refuse. Richard Nixon, in RN: the Memoirs of Richard Nixon (1978), recalls the pressure on his Cabinet to make public demands for his resignation.
- 2A written or spoken declaration stating that one is giving up a position.
The CEO submitted her resignation in a brief letter.
He tendered his resignation during the press conference.
Similarnotice
Note
Here the resignation is something you can hold or hear: a letter, or words spoken aloud. That is why it is handed in, submitted or tendered, as in the set phrase hand in one's resignation. The document is what you deliver; the act of resigning is what it sets in motion and what finally takes effect.
- 3A calm, uncomplaining acceptance of something unpleasant that cannot be avoided.
With weary resignation, the farmers watched the drought destroy their crops.
There was resignation in his voice as he accepted the verdict.
Similaracceptance, submission, fatalism, acquiescence, stoicism
Oppositeresistance, defiance, protest
Note
The inward kind of giving up: not leaving a post but ceasing to resist what cannot be changed. It often travels in the phrase with resignation, used like an adverb (With resignation I acknowledged…). Because his resignation can mean either this or leaving a job, the surrounding words decide which is meant.
- 4The legal procedure by which a vassal returns a feu into the hands of the feudal superior who granted it.
The charter recorded the resignation of the feu to the crown.
Through resignation, the vassal surrendered the holding to his superior.
Similarsurrender
Note
A term of Scots feudal law that now belongs to history. The feu was the holding, and resignation was the formal step by which a vassal handed it back to the superior who had granted it. Read in old charters, the word names this legal procedure, not patient acceptance or simply quitting a job.
Practice
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Origin
It comes from Middle English resignacion, borrowed from Old French resignation, which came from Medieval Latin resignātio. It is equivalent to "resign" plus the suffix "-ation".