assignation
Americannoun
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an appointment for a meeting, especially a lover's secret rendezvous.
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the act of assigning; assignment.
noun
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a secret or forbidden arrangement to meet, esp one between lovers
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the act of assigning; assignment
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law another word for assignment
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of assignation
1400–50; late Middle English assignacioun < Latin assignātiōn- (stem of assignātiō ). See assign, -ation
Explanation
An assignation is a secret meeting. You might have an assignation with your new girlfriend if the two of you were keeping your relationship private. Any kind of clandestine meeting can be called an assignation, but it most often describes a romantic tryst. Every encounter between the two main characters in Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" is an assignation, since their families don't approve of their relationship. The word assignation meant "appointment by authority" in the 14th century, from the Latin assignationem, "an assigning or allotment," with the "meeting by arrangement" meaning arising in the late 17th century.
Vocabulary lists containing assignation
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Additions were afterwards made to The Rehearsal, and among these are the parodies on Assignation, which are not to be found in Buckingham's play as it originally appeared.
From Lives of the Poets, Volume 1 by Johnson, Samuel
Books of Assignation of Stipends; Wodrow Miscellany, vol. i. pp.
From The Works of John Knox, Vol. 1 (of 6) by Laing, David
I must leave thee now, for I have an Assignation here at Church.
From The Works of Aphra Behn, Volume II by Summers, Montague
Dryden attacked one of his plays, The Citizen turned Gentleman, an imitation of Molière's Bourgeois-Gentilhomme, in the Prologue to The Assignation.
From The Love-Tiff by Molière
Falstaff's Assignation with Mrs. Ford—from the Merry Wives of Windsor—is remarkably delicate in the execution, possesses good colouring, and is altogether creditable to the painter, Mr. Clint.
From The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 17, No. 478, February 26, 1831 by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
