consign
Americanverb (used with object)
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to hand over or deliver formally or officially; commit (often followed byto ).
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to transfer to another's custody or charge; entrust.
- Synonyms:
- confide
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to set apart for or devote to (a special purpose or use).
to consign two afternoons a week to the club.
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to banish or set apart in one's mind; relegate.
to consign unpleasant thoughts to oblivion.
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Commerce.
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to ship, as by common carrier, especially for sale or custody.
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to address for such shipment.
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Obsolete. to confirm or ratify, as with a seal or other token.
verb (used without object)
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to agree or assent.
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Obsolete. to yield or submit.
verb
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to hand over or give into the care or charge of another; entrust
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to commit irrevocably
he consigned the papers to the flames
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to commit for admittance
to consign someone to jail
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to address or deliver (goods) for sale, disposal, etc
it was consigned to his London address
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obsolete (intr) to assent; agree
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of consign
1400–50; late Middle English; apparently (< Middle French consigner ) < Medieval Latin consignāre to mark with sign of cross, Latin: to mark with a seal. See con-, sign
Explanation
The verb consign means to transfer permanently to another. You can consign ownership of your old car to your son, an act that will probably make you the "best parent ever" in his eyes. Consign means to commit or relegate. Those platform shoes you still have from high school in the 1970s? You should probably consign them to the trash — of course, they probably should have been consigned in the 1970s! Consign can also be used if you turn over an object for sale where the business making the sale gets a percentage of the profits and so do you. If you don't like the art work you inherited, you might consign it with an auction house and use the profits to buy something you like better.
Vocabulary lists containing consign
300 Most Difficult "SAT" Words
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Grade 11, List 4
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A Tale of Two Cities
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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.
Never mind the state’s environmental laws that consign building projects to purgatory.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 8, 2026
This isn’t to consign Richman to pop’s deep bin of one-hit wonders.
From New York Times • Dec. 6, 2024
To consign Ahmed only to tours of Asia as a second or third spinner feels like a waste.
From BBC • Oct. 27, 2024
The originator of the concept, Snapchat, started out as a simple photo-sharing app that promised to consign your private visual messages after just a few seconds each.
From Slate • Oct. 6, 2024
That He just proposed to sit up there and consign us to hardships one right after another?
From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver
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.
