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assign

[uh-sahyn]
verb (used with object)
  1. to give or allocate; allot: to assign rooms at a hotel.
  2. to give out or announce as a task: to assign homework.
  3. to appoint, as to a post or duty: to assign one to guard duty.
  4. to designate; name; specify: to assign a day for a meeting.
  5. to ascribe; attribute; bring forward: to assign a cause.
  6. Law. to transfer: to assign a contract.
  7. Military. to place permanently on duty with a unit or under a commander.
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verb (used without object)
  1. Law. to transfer property, especially in trust or for the benefit of creditors.
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noun
  1. Usually assigns. Law. a person to whom the property or interest of another is or may be transferred; assignee: my heirs and assigns.
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Origin of assign

1250–1300; Middle English assignen < Old French assigner < Latin assignāre. See as-, sign
Related formsas·sign·er; Chiefly Law. as·sign·or [uh-sahy-nawr, as-uh-nawr] /ə saɪˈnɔr, ˌæs əˈnɔr/, nounmis·as·sign, verbnon·as·signed, adjectivepre·as·sign, verb (used with object)pre·as·signed, adjectivere·as·sign, verb (used with object)self-as·signed, adjectiveun·as·signed, adjectivewell-as·signed, adjective

Synonyms

4. fix, determine. 5. adduce, allege, advance, show, offer.

Synonym study

1. Assign, allocate, allot mean to apportion or measure out. To assign is to distribute available things, designating them to be given to or reserved for specific persons or purposes: to assign duties. To allocate is to earmark or set aside parts of things available or expected in the future, each for a specific purpose: to allocate income to various types of expenses. To allot implies making restrictions as to amount, size, purpose, etc., and then apportioning or assigning: to allot spaces for parking.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for unassigned

Historical Examples

  • Even if the part were unassigned I should never give it her!

    Nana, The Miller's Daughter, Captain Burle, Death of Olivier Becaille

    Emile Zola

  • The former has encountered him, the other has as yet felt only unassigned impulses.

    God The Invisible King

    Herbert George Wells

  • They were suffered to become betrothed, but for some unassigned reason their marriage was forbidden.

    Glimpses of Three Coasts

    Helen Hunt Jackson

  • They could find no room for Mrs. Jaynes, until it was remembered that there was an unassigned dormitory room at Dare Hall.

    Ruth Fielding At College

    Alice B. Emerson

  • So they tried to have the unassigned lands legally declared open to homesteaders.

British Dictionary definitions for unassigned

assign

verb (mainly tr)
  1. to select for and appoint to a post, etcto assign an expert to the job
  2. to give out or allot (a task, problem, etc)to assign advertising to an expert
  3. to set apart (a place, person, time, etc) for a particular function or eventto assign a day for the meeting
  4. to attribute to a specified cause, origin, or source; ascribeto assign a stone cross to the Vikings
  5. to transfer (one's right, interest, or title to property) to someone else
  6. (also intr) law (formerly) to transfer (property) to trustees so that it may be used for the benefit of creditors
  7. military to allocate (men or materials) on a permanent basisCompare attach (def. 6)
  8. computing to place (a value corresponding to a variable) in a memory location
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noun
  1. law a person to whom property is assigned; assignee
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Derived Formsassignable, adjectiveassignability, nounassignably, adverbassigner, noun

Word Origin

C14: from Old French assigner, from Latin assignāre, from signāre to mark out
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 unassigned

assign

v.

c.1300, from Old French assiginer (13c.) "assign, set (a date, etc.); appoint legally; allot," from Latin assignare "to mark out, to allot by sign, assign, award," from ad- "to" (see ad-) + signare "make a sign," from signum "mark" (see sign). Main original use was in English law, in transferences of personal property. General meaning "to fix, settle, determine, appoint" is from c.1300. Related: Assigned; assigning.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper