What it signified was obvious: the machismo inherent to youth sports that parents crave.
To them, that “signified a lack of recovery and inability to move on.”
I could hear the code words and I could hear the words that signified he had been captured.
When the House censured Charlie Rangel yesterday, it signified a shift in how Congress does business.
Ruth could hardly face returning to America and the failure that would have signified.
She signified her helplessness with a quick and dainty movement of her hands.
Cook then drew a line on the ground, and signified to the natives that they must not pass it.
It signified that one power was about to succeed another power.
And he knew now what signified the flush on Boyne's cheeks and the light in his eyes.
On the contrary he made a wry face and thrust his cheek out with his tongue, which signified "go and do it yourself."
late 13c., "be a sign of, indicate, mean," from Old French signifier (12c.), from Latin significare "to make signs, show by signs, point out, express; mean, signify; foreshadow, portend," from significus (adj.), from signum "sign" (see sign (n.)) + root of facere "to make" (see factitious). Intransitive sense of "to be of importance" is attested from 1660s. Meaning "engage in mock-hostile banter" is American English black slang first recorded 1932.
...'signifying,' which in Harlemese means making a series of oblique remarks apparently addressed to no one in particular, but unmistakable in intention in such a close-knit circle. ["Down Beat," March 7, 1968]
verb
To make provocative comments in a gamelike manner; snap, sound: any black kid who has stood in a school yard or on a street corner engaging in the mock-hostile banter that blacks call ''signifying''/ In Chicago you still get people doing the old-style rhyming; that's called signifying (1932+ Black)
