assignment
[uh-sahyn-muh nt]
- something assigned, as a particular task or duty: She completed the assignment and went on to other jobs.
- a position of responsibility, post of duty, or the like, to which one is appointed: He left for his assignment in the Middle East.
- an act of assigning; appointment.
- Law.
- the transference of a right, interest, or title, or the instrument of transfer.
- a transference of property to assignees for the benefit of creditors.
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Origin of assignment
Synonyms
See more synonyms for assignment on Thesaurus.comDictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for assignment
Contemporary Examples
When Lewis was shipped off to Vietnam, his son was just three months old, and the timing of the assignment worried Lewis.
When Vial got that first assignment, she was just beginning her photography career, and Cirque du Soleil was only a few years old.
“For our winter issue, we gave ourselves one assignment: Break The Internet,” wrote Paper.
One assignment will ask students to “write about their feelings about abortion and how they should manage them.”
You were in retirement when you got the call for this assignment.
Historical Examples
You've got your berth, you've got your money, you're going to get your passport, and you've got your assignment.
Plotting in Pirate SeasFrancis Rolt-Wheeler
It was at noon of the third day he had been at work when John was given his first assignment.
Spring StreetJames H. Richardson
One of the detectives detailed to this assignment was Hyman Ginsburg.
From Place to PlaceIrvin S. Cobb
He had given me the assignment of putting antigrav units into production.
Sense from Thought DivideMark Irvin Clifton
And it can show us that a nation's assignment of a mission to itself is not a sudden growth.
Chosen PeoplesIsrael Zangwill
assignment
- something that has been assigned, such as a mission or task
- a position or post to which a person is assigned
- the act of assigning or state of being assigned
- law
- the transfer to another of a right, interest, or title to property, esp personal propertyassignment of a lease
- the document effecting such a transfer
- the right, interest, or property transferred
- law (formerly) the transfer, esp by an insolvent debtor, of property in trust for the benefit of his creditors
- logic a function that associates specific values with each variable in a formal expression
- Australian history a system (1789–1841) whereby a convict could become the unpaid servant of a freeman
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for assignment
n.
late 14c., "order, request, directive," from Old French assignement "(legal) assignment (of dower, etc.)," from Late Latin assignamentum, noun of action from Latin assignare (see assign). Meaning "appointment to office" is mid-15c.; that of "a task assigned" (to someone) is from c.1848.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper