signet
Americannoun
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a small seal, as on a finger ring.
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a small official seal for legal documents, contracts, etc.
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an impression made by or as if by a signet.
verb (used with object)
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signets,
present (3rd person singular)
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signeted,
past participle, past
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signeting
present participle
noun
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a small seal, esp one as part of a finger ring
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a seal used to stamp or authenticate documents
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the impression made by such a seal
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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signetsimple
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signetssimple
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have signetedperfect
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has signetedperfect
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am signetingprogressive
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are signetingprogressive
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is signetingprogressive
-
have been signetingperfect progressive
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has been signetingperfect progressive
Past
-
signetedsimple
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had signetedperfect
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was signetingprogressive
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were signetingprogressive
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had been signetingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of signet
1300–50; Middle English < Old French ( see sign, -et); compare Medieval Latin signētum
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:
Mejuri’s globe-spanning operation must execute with precision before its customers can slip on the jeweler’s tennis bracelets and signet rings.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 4, 2026
Are you wearing a martini glass signet ring?
From Salon ● May 1, 2025
A signet ring cast in sterling silver, left, and 14K gold rings by Nicholas Berkofsky of Fell Knives.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 19, 2025
Archives show that those who lived in Brown Square included physician Joseph McKenzie; advocate John McLaurin; lord justice clerk Thomas Miller; Lady Agnew; and a writer to the signet, Isaac Grant.
From BBC ● Sep. 2, 2022
There was a circlet of whiter skin on his third finger where he used to wear the signet ring that Katie had given him when they married.
From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith
Mr. Yang has a tattoo on his arm, drawn by a nonbinary Chinese tattoo artist, with ancient signets.
From New York Times ● Jan. 25, 2020
The short exchange had many signets of Mr. Ryan’s nascent leadership style, which contrasts sharply with that of his predecessor, John A. Boehner.
From New York Times ● Dec. 7, 2015
So far, they have found 1,500 objects: gold and silver jewelry, carved signets, artistic glassware and pottery.
From Time Magazine Archive
Everybody began attending to the paraphernalia of a challenge, the usual sealing of the gages with signets and so on, and the fixing of the date.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
For this purpose, the ancient physicians carried signets or rings, frequently worn upon the thumb, and on which were engraved their own names, sometimes written backwards, or the denominations of the nostrums they vended.
From Curiosities of Medical Experience by J. G. (John Gideon) Millingen
"And now, Sir Alexander, what say you?" asked the Sieur de Retz, turning to the King's guardian, who had been caressing the curls of his beard with his white and signeted hand.
From The Black Douglas by Frank Richards
Packets are signeted, mutually sealed, Rucker claps on the Town-seal first, Freytag and Voltaire following with theirs.
From History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 16 by Thomas Carlyle
For raising and signeting the summonds of reduction in my Lord Abotshall's name, against the minister of Athelstanford, a dollar and a halfe.
From Publications of the Scottish History Society, Volume 36 Journals of Sir John Lauder Lord Fountainhall with His Observations on Public Affairs and Other Memoranda 1665-1676 by Lord John Lauder Fountainhall
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.
