relegate
Americanverb (used with object)
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relegates,
present (3rd person singular)
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relegated,
past participle, past
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relegating
present participle
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to send or consign to an inferior position, place, or condition.
He has been relegated to a post at the fringes of the diplomatic service.
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to consign or commit (a matter, task, etc.), as to a person.
He relegates the less pleasant tasks to his assistant.
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to assign or refer (something) to a particular class or kind.
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to send into exile; banish.
verb
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to move to a position of less authority, importance, etc; demote
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(usually passive) to demote (a football team, etc) to a lower division
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to assign or refer (a matter) to another or others, as for action or decision
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(foll by to) to banish or exile
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to assign (something) to a particular group or category
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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relegatesimple
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relegatessimple
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have relegatedperfect
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has relegatedperfect
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am relegatingprogressive
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are relegatingprogressive
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is relegatingprogressive
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have been relegatingperfect progressive
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has been relegatingperfect progressive
Past
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relegatedsimple
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had relegatedperfect
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was relegatingprogressive
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were relegatingprogressive
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had been relegatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of relegate
First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English from Latin relēgātus, past participle of relēgāre “to send away, dispatch”; see re-, legate
Explanation
Relegate means "to assign to a lower position." If the quarterback of the football team stops making decent throws, he might be relegated to the position of benchwarmer. Relegate rhymes with delegate — both words derive from the Latin legare, "to send." Relegate means to send someone down in rank. Delegate means to send someone in your place to complete a task. In the workplace, managers who can't figure out how to delegate may get relegated to a lesser rank.
Vocabulary lists containing relegate
Essential Academic Vocabulary for High School Students, List 1
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"Letter from Birmingham Jail" by Martin Luther King, Jr. (1963)
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300 Most Difficult "SAT" Words
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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:
Green is good, but it’s better wildlife encounters that might eventually relegate diesel to travel’s endangered species list.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
Forest have six games left as they look to beat the drop - potentially helping to relegate Tottenham for the first time since 1977 in the process.
From BBC ● Apr. 16, 2026
"And the US threatens to relegate the organisation to even greater irrelevance if it doesn't get what it wants," she told AFP.
From Barron's ● Mar. 27, 2026
They would rather relegate Robyn to “cringe” status.
From Salon ● Jan. 10, 2026
Aditya looked reproachful in these later sketches, his eyes beckoning the artist to stay with him for just a while longer, to not forget, to not relegate him to these empty pages.
From "When Dimple Met Rishi" by Sandhya Menon
By naming the product of two mergers Skydance, David Ellison relegates two of Hollywood’s founding studios to a sub-brand stew and attempts to erase a bunch of controversial hires.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 5, 2026
Still, workers clearly have some time before AI relegates them to the permanent underclass.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 4, 2026
Apple TV+ is so far down the list of streamers by watch time that Nielsen relegates it to the “other streaming” category of a pie chart.
From Slate ● Jan. 16, 2025
"We're not doing anything illegal. We act according to the law. As for being scared, fear mustn't prevail. I believe in what I'm doing. And this conviction relegates fear to second place."
From BBC ● Jan. 31, 2024
If History, however, contemptuously relegates the Moundbuilders to the mattock of the antiquarian, she is still "Philosophy teaching by example."
From Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science Volume 17, No. 102, June, 1876 by Various
Boro saw off competition around the Championship, and in Europe, to sign the 21-year-old who impressed at Oxford United in the second tier last season, scoring 12 league goals on loan for a relegated side.
From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2026
It risks sanctions ranging from being stripped of its titles to being relegated from the league.
From Barron's ● Oct. 1, 2026
After the eight-point reinstatement but with the 19-point penalty still in place, the Foxes are 17 points behind Essex and will be relegated if their appeal is unsuccessful.
From BBC ● Sep. 28, 2026
It is about those clubs who just missed out on the Champions League, or failed to make Europe, or even those who were relegated.
From BBC ● Sep. 27, 2026
Hassan called driving and Lindsey called shotgun, so even though it was his car, Colin was relegated to the backseat, where he curled up against the window and read J. D. Salinger's Seymour: An Introduction.
From "An Abundance of Katherines" by John Green
Sweeping contentious issues under the rug and relegating them to wanton aggravation is one major way of letting these same topics fester.
From Salon ● Apr. 3, 2026
The crown jewels of the arcade industry, they occupy the building's first two floors, relegating video games to the basement and upper levels.
From Barron's ● Dec. 26, 2025
Cerebras inscribed the memory directly on to the wafer rather than relegating it to distant chips and chiplets in high-bandwidth memory mazes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 3, 2025
There was a resultant concern that relegating Lyon would put Ligue 1 at disadvantage in terms of its global pull.
From BBC ● Jul. 11, 2025
Somehow he had the faculty of relegating small personal vexations to their proper place in the scheme of things—thrusting them far into the background.
From The Moon out of Reach by Margaret Pedler
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