reapportion
Americanverb (used with object)
Etymology
Origin of reapportion
Explanation
To reapportion is to hand out or deliver something in a new way or at a different time. Your teacher might reapportion the math quizzes after realizing the pages weren't all printed on both sides. When you reapportion the candy from a piñata among birthday party guests, you take back what they've grabbed and then parcel it out, making sure each child gets the same amount. When Congress reapportions voting districts, it rearranges them and assigns citizens new polling places. To apportion is to assign a part of something, from the Latin portionem, "share or part."
Vocabulary lists containing reapportion
This Week In Words: Current Events Vocab for January 30–February 5, 2021
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The God of Small Things
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"The Americans: Reconstruction to the 21st Century," Vocabulary from Chapter 20
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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.
Every 10 years, states rely on census data to redraw their legislative districts to reflect population changes and rebalance, or reapportion, congressional and legislative seats.
From Seattle Times • Aug. 20, 2023
The census proved accurate enough in the end to be used to reapportion the House of Representatives and guide the drawing of new political maps nationwide.
From New York Times • Apr. 7, 2022
Congress also uses the results to reapportion seats in the House of Representatives for the next decade.
From Washington Times • Aug. 4, 2020
The law leaves to Congress its constitutional responsibility to reapportion the House, but it gives to the Census Bureau the mechanical chores and the political “heat” that go with that task.
From Textbooks • Jan. 1, 2016
The rest of the party would remain here repairing sledges and drying clothes until Marvin and Borup came in, when I could reapportion my loads, and send back all superfluous men, dogs, and sledges.
From The North Pole Its Discovery in 1909 under the auspices of the Peary Arctic Club by Peary, Robert E. (Robert Edwin)
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.
