Definition of RELEGATION

Choose the Right Synonym for relegate

commit, entrust, confide, consign, relegate mean to assign to a person or place for a definite purpose. commit may express the general idea of delivering into another's charge or the special sense of transferring to a superior power or to a special place of custody. committed the felon to prison entrust implies committing with trust and confidence. the president is entrusted with broad powers confide implies entrusting with great assurance or reliance. confided complete control of my affairs to my attorney consign suggests removing from one's control with formality or finality. consigned the damaging notes to the fire relegate implies a consigning to a particular class or sphere often with a suggestion of getting rid of. relegated to an obscure position in the company

Did You Know?

Originally relegate meant "to send into exile, banish". So when you relegate an old sofa to the basement, you're sending it to home-decorating Siberia. When confronted with a matter that no one really wants to face, a chief executive may relegate it to a committee "for further study", which may manage to ignore it for years. It may be annoying to read a newspaper article about a pet project and find that your own contributions have been relegated to a short sentence near the end.

Examples of relegate in a Sentence

The bill has been relegated to committee for discussion. courtiers and generals who incurred the emperor's disfavor were soon relegated to the farther reaches of the empire

Recent Examples on the Web

Leave the sharp objects at home: This sounds obvious, but most sharp objects should be relegated to checked baggage and sheathed or securely wrapped to avoid injuring anyone handling or inspecting the baggage. — Katherine Lagrave, Condé Nast Traveler, "Rules For Flying to Follow So You Don't Get Kicked Off Your Flight," 19 Dec. 2018 As urban development and wildfire creep closer toward one another, tens of thousands of residents across the state are reckoning with new risks that once seemed relegated to the lovely, if parched golden hillsides above the cities. — Susie Cagle, Curbed, "California’s changing fire country," 10 Oct. 2018 The trips to nearby towns were also degrading because of establishments that either relegated blacks to subpar seating and service or barred them from entering altogether. — Alexis Clark, Smithsonian, "The Army’s First Black Nurses Were Relegated to Caring for Nazi Prisoners of War," 15 May 2018 When 17 Republicans sought the GOP presidential nomination in 2016, candidates were divided between first- and second-tier debates using polling averages, with lower-performers relegated to an earlier time slot. — Reid J. Epstein, WSJ, "Democratic Party to Hold First of 12 Televised Debates for 2020 Presidential Primaries in June," 20 Dec. 2018 Hardware has been relegated to second fiddle, which marks a sea change for a tech giant in transition and watershed moment for Apple events, which had generally made phones and laptops and watches the stars of the show. — Eric Limer, Popular Mechanics, "For Apple's Big Event on Monday, Hardware Is Just a Sideshow," 21 Mar. 2019 For too long, girls have been relegated to the sidelines in these stories, limited to being some sort of Winnie Cooper type—a chaste, flawless object of affection with perfect manners and not a single zit. — Bonnie Stiernberg, Glamour, "I Wish Every Teen Girl Would Watch Hulu's PEN15," 10 Mar. 2019 Boxing has been relegated to the back pages, and Marciano—killed in a plane crash in August 1969, just before turning 46—is a footnote even there. — David Margolick, WSJ, "‘Unbeaten’ Review: Forty-Nine Wins and No Losses," 19 July 2018 The IIsi, and its vintage brethren, have long since been relegated to history. — Chris Wilkinson, Ars Technica, "1990, meet 2018: How far does 20MHz of Macintosh IIsi power go today?," 1 July 2018

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