assign

verb

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as·sign | \ ə-ˈsīn

assigned; assigning; assigns

Definition of assign

(Entry 1 of 2)

transitive verb

1 : to transfer (property) to another especially in trust or for the benefit of creditors

2a : to appoint to a post or duty assigned them to light duty assigned me two clerks

b : to appoint as a duty or task assigns 20 pages for homework

3 : to fix or specify in correspondence or relationship : select, designate assign counsel to the defendant assign a value to the variable Though assigned male at birth, she appears most comfortable and in her element wearing a skirt and high-heeled sandals when riding a big-wheel or playing with a tea set.— Will Dean

4a : to ascribe as a motive, reason, or cause especially after deliberation

b : to consider to belong to a specified period of time Archaeologists assign the weapon to the eleventh century.

assign

noun

Definition of assign (Entry 2 of 2)

: assignee sense 3 heirs and assigns

Other Words from assign Synonyms Choose the Right Synonym More Example Sentences Learn More about assign

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Choose the Right Synonym for assign

Verb

ascribe, attribute, assign, impute, credit mean to lay something to the account of a person or thing. ascribe suggests an inferring or conjecturing of cause, quality, authorship. forged paintings formerly ascribed to masters attribute suggests less tentativeness than ascribe, less definiteness than assign. attributed to Rembrandt but possibly done by an associate assign implies ascribing with certainty or after deliberation. assigned the bones to the Cretaceous period impute suggests ascribing something that brings discredit by way of accusation or blame. tried to impute sinister motives to my actions credit implies ascribing a thing or especially an action to a person or other thing as its agent, source, or explanation. credited his teammates for his success

Examples of assign in a Sentence

Verb The teacher assigned us 50 math problems for homework! She was assigned to the embassy in India. The new teacher was assigned to the science laboratory. The plane landed at its assigned gate.

Recent Examples on the Web: Verb And since the only function assigned to government by the principle of liberty is the negative one of protection against injury, when government is obliged to assume a positive role, neither its proper powers nor its proper limits have been defined. — Yuval Levin, National Review, "The Historian as Moralist," 31 Dec. 2019 He was assigned Tuesday, according to an order from Randolph County Circuit Court. — John Moritz, Arkansas Online, "Collins case has new prosecutor; change is latest of several," 21 Dec. 2019 The case is assigned by U.S. District Judge Solomon Oliver Jr. — Eric Heisig, cleveland, "Cleveland Water’s policies discriminate against black Cuyahoga County residents, lawsuit says," 18 Dec. 2019 In one section of the complaint, Amazon’s scores on seven different evaluation criteria assigned to it by the government’s source-selection team were redacted, while Microsoft’s corresponding scores were made public. — Washington Post, "Amazon, Justice Department spar over redactions in Pentagon cloud lawsuit," 14 Dec. 2019 He was assigned to a team that looked at overhead expenditures such as rent, utilities, and company travel. — NBC News, "Buttigieg releases McKinsey client list, includes Best Buy and Defense Department," 11 Dec. 2019 Last year, he was assigned as an agent to the Madison-Morgan County HIDTA Drug Task Force, known as the STAC team. — Ashley Remkus | Aremkus@al.com, al, "Mother of suspect in Huntsville police shooting: ‘My heart goes out to the officer’s family’," 8 Dec. 2019 He was assigned an alien identification number — A203665141 — to help agencies track him. — Robert Moore, ProPublica, "Inside the Cell Where a Sick 16-Year-Old Boy Died in Border Patrol Care," 8 Dec. 2019 He was then assigned to the Manhattan Project, a World War II project that created the first nuclear weapons. — Fox News, "Secret identity of fourth Soviet spy who stole US atomic bomb secrets finally revealed," 5 Dec. 2019 Recent Examples on the Web: Noun The Harvard historian Serhii Plokhy’s 2018 book on Chernobyl reconstructs the sequence of events and assigns blame. — Masha Gessen, The New Yorker, "What HBO’s “Chernobyl” Got Right, and What It Got Terribly Wrong," 4 June 2019 IBT Media and its affiliates, successors, assigns, employees, agents, directors, officers and shareholders do not undertake or assume any duty to monitor our site for inappropriate or unlawful content. — Newsweek, "Terms of Service," 14 Mar. 2018 Schools that are oversubscribed assign seats by lottery. — Kate Taylor, New York Times, "City Announces Plan to Diversify Lower Manhattan Schools," 26 Oct. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'assign.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Last Updated

10 Jan 2020

Cite this Entry

“Assign.” The Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster Inc., https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/assign. Accessed 22 January 2020.

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More Definitions for assign

assign

verb

English Language Learners Definition of assign

: to give someone a particular job or duty : to require someone to do a particular task

: to send (someone) to a particular group or place as part of a job

: to give out something : to provide someone with something

See the full definition for assign in the English Language Learners Dictionary

assign

verb

as·sign | \ ə-ˈsīn

assigned; assigning

Kids Definition of assign

1 : to give out as a job or responsibility Our teacher assigned homework in math.

2 : to give out to : provide Each student is assigned a locker.

3 : to give a particular quality, value, or identity to Assign a number to each picture.

assign

transitive verb

as·sign | \ ə-ˈsīn

Legal Definition of assign

(Entry 1 of 2)

1 : to transfer (property or rights) to another the general practice by inventors of assigning patent rights— J. K. Owens

2 : to appoint to a post or duty assigned to represent the defendant

3 : to fix or specify in relationship or correspondence a party may assign as error…a failure to give an instruction, if that party properly requested it — Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 51