delegate
Americannoun
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a person designated to act for or represent another or others; deputy; representative, as in a political convention.
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(formerly) the representative of a Territory in the U.S. House of Representatives.
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a member of the lower house of the state legislature of Maryland, Virginia, or West Virginia.
noun
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a person chosen or elected to act for or represent another or others, esp at a conference or meeting
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government a representative of a territory in the US House of Representatives
verb
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to give or commit (duties, powers, etc) to another as agent or representative; depute
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(tr) to send, authorize, or elect (a person) as agent or representative
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(tr) to assign (a person owing a debt to oneself) to one's creditor in substitution for oneself
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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delegateenoun
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delegatornoun
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nondelegatenoun
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predelegatenoun
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subdelegatenoun
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redelegateverb (used with object)
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subdelegateverb (used with object)
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delegableadjective
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undelegatedadjective
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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delegatesimple
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delegatessimple
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have delegatedperfect
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has delegatedperfect
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am delegatingprogressive
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are delegatingprogressive
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is delegatingprogressive
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have been delegatingperfect progressive
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has been delegatingperfect progressive
Past
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delegatedsimple
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had delegatedperfect
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was delegatingprogressive
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were delegatingprogressive
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had been delegatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of delegate
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English (past participle) delegat, from Medieval Latin dēlēgātus, noun use of past participle of dēlēgāre “to assign,” equivalent to dē- de- + lēgātus “deputed”; see legate
Explanation
Delegate lends an official air to passing off your work. If you don't like cleaning the bathroom, you can try to delegate that task to your little brother. A delegate is also an elected official, or the person who is doing the task you delegated them to do. In presidential primaries in the United States, you do not vote for a candidate, you vote for a delegate whose job it is to vote for that candidate at a convention. Be careful with how you pronounce the end of the word. The elected official is pronounced DE-lə-git whereas delegate as a verb should be DE-lə-gāt.
Vocabulary lists containing delegate
The Bill of Rights
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List 4
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U.S. Government Lingo
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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.
See Examples For:
The central government delegate in Madrid had earlier given a higher estimate of around 70,000.
From Barron's ● Jul. 25, 2026
Francisco Martín, the government delegate in Madrid, warned those numbers could rise as "embers are flying for miles and the fire is jumping great distances".
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
In some large counties, Jackson won every delegate at stake as a plurality of convention attendees simply voted for the populist Democrat’s slate.
From Slate ● Jul. 24, 2026
Jackson is the mini-me Platner on the blue-collar and policy front, the top reason the party’s county delegate conventions rallied to him this past weekend.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026
After one of our delegate assembly meetings, Mr. Muse informed me that I had been invited to have lunch at the Rotary Club meeting on the following Tuesday.
From "Breaking Through" by Francisco Jiménez
Most of the delegates elected to the convention last weekend support former state Senate President Troy Jackson, and all of his meaningful rivals quickly dropped out.
From Slate ● Jul. 25, 2026
They were joined by Kimberlyn King-Hinds of the Northern Mariana Islands and James Moylan of Guam, nonvoting delegates who can debate and cast votes on amendments but not on actual legislation.
From Salon ● Jul. 22, 2026
In December, Motsepe attended the ANC's national general council meeting, where some delegates wore T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan "PM27" -- a reference to a possible presidential bid in 2027.
From Barron's ● Jul. 22, 2026
After a six-week standoff, the Bundist delegates walked out.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026
Fifteen thousand delegates, spectators, and news reporters filled Chicago's huge Interstate Industrial Exposition Building.
From "Ambushed!" by Gail Jarrow
Rather than saddle an existing agency with additional duties, Congress delegated rulemaking and enforcement power to a private corporation known as the Horseracing Authority.
From Slate ● Jun. 12, 2026
In her opening remarks Friday, Bondi told the committee she delegated most responsibility for managing the release to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, then the department’s No. 2 official.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 29, 2026
“I don’t see where Harmeet Dhillon has the experience or the normal level of authority that this would be delegated to,” the official said.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 28, 2026
Under such conditions, pre-authorised target lists and delegated launch authority could be deliberate safeguards against decapitation.
From BBC ● Mar. 5, 2026
Some say it was delegated by the gods to Prometheus, the Titan who had sided with Zeus in the war with the Titans, and to his brother, Epimetheus.
From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton
Similarly to that crawl, L.A.’s will feature a passport system, which involves delegating stamps for every purchase of $10 or more at each stop.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
Call it CEO parenting: treating the modern family as a small enterprise and delegating low-joy tasks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 18, 2026
These set out guidance on what states can do to enhance credibility and improve transparency, including by delegating investigations to a third party if necessary.
From BBC ● Jun. 10, 2026
Leo has denounced the race for AI in the military field, saying that "delegating decisions concerning the life and death of human beings to machines" is a "destructive spiral".
From Barron's ● May 25, 2026
This morning Dad has taken the liberty of delegating tasks through passive-aggressive Post-it notes hidden like Easter eggs all over the house.
From "Dry" by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman
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.
