relegate

American  

[rel-i-gayt] / ˈrɛl ɪˌgeɪt /

verb (used with object)

• relegates,
  present (3rd person singular)
• relegated,
  past participle,  past
• relegating
  present participle

1. 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.

2. to consign or commit (a matter, task, etc.), as to a person.

   He relegates the less pleasant tasks to his assistant.

   Synonyms:

   entrust, consign, assign

3. to assign or refer (something) to a particular class or kind.

4. to send into exile; banish.

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relegate British  

/ ˈrɛlɪˌɡeɪt /

verb

1. to move to a position of less authority, importance, etc; demote

2. (usually passive) to demote (a football team, etc) to a lower division

3. to assign or refer (a matter) to another or others, as for action or decision

4. (foll by to) to banish or exile

5. to assign (something) to a particular group or category

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• relegation
  noun
• relegable
  adjective
• relegatable
  adjective
• unrelegable
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• relegating
  present
• relegated
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• relegate
  simple
• relegates
  simple
• have relegated
  perfect
• has relegated
  perfect
• am relegating
  progressive
• are relegating
  progressive
• is relegating
  progressive
• have been relegating
  perfect progressive
• has been relegating
  perfect progressive

Past

• relegated
  simple
• had relegated
  perfect
• was relegating
  progressive
• were relegating
  progressive
• had been relegating
  perfect progressive

Future

• will relegate
  simple
• will have relegated
  perfect
• will be relegating
  progressive
• will have been relegating
  perfect progressive

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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

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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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

relegate relegates relegated relegating

Before the show, the singer told the Jerusalem Post he was determined to concentrate on the music and relegate any criticisms to "background noise".

From BBC ● May 12, 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

One idea is to relegate certain demanding workloads to superconductors, which conduct electricity with zero resistance and produce almost no heat.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 4, 2026

What Skipper’s team has a chance to do Saturday might relegate those wins to fine print in his memoir.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 24, 2025

I wasn’t going to relegate our love to the creeping pace of the postal service.

From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama

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

The move relegates Miller Moss to a reserve role after nine uneven starts this season.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 5, 2024

"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

We cling to the individualist manner, to that intense eulogy which concentrates its rays on the particular object of notice and relegates all others to proportional obscurity.

From Browning and His Century by Helen Archibald Clarke

Meanwhile, Wigan and Portsmouth were relegated to League One after a second season in the Championship, Leeds and Sheffield Wednesday after a third.

From BBC ● Oct. 29, 2026

Every October, societal outcasts and weirdos relegated to the underground are permitted passage back into the mainstream.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 28, 2026

Second, it marks a solid finale for a genre largely relegated to streaming, because for some odd reason, film executives don’t understand how powerful a collective romantic experience outside your living room can be.

From Salon ● Oct. 26, 2026

Instead, they were relegated to the upper deck or standing room.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 21, 2026

Instead, he was relegated to the sidelines as a marginal player while Johnny-come-latelies like Hamilton and Madison occupied center stage.

From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis

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

And there I go, relegating the white-ball team to a second-tier status.

From BBC ● Feb. 27, 2025

They accordingly accepted the situation, and, relegating their own golfing efforts to the autumn, turned to the equally congenial task of spoiling the Egyptians.

From "Pip" A Romance of Youth by Ian Hay

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Related Words

• consign
• entrust
• refer

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