assign definition | Dictionary.com

as⋅sign

[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.

–verb (used without object)

8.	Law. to transfer property, esp. in trust or for the benefit of creditors.

–noun

9.	Usually, assigns. Law. a person to whom the property or interest of another is or may be transferred; assignee: my heirs and assigns.

Origin:
1250–1300; ME assignen < OF assigner < L assignāre. See as-, sign

Related forms:

as⋅sign⋅er; Chiefly Law. as⋅sign⋅or [uh-sahy-nawr, as-uh-nawr]

, noun

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

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Link To assign

as·sign (ə-sīn')

tr.v. as·signed, as·sign·ing, as·signs

To set apart for a particular purpose; designate: assigned a day for the inspection.
To select for a duty or office; appoint: firefighters assigned to the city's industrial park.
To give out as a task; allot: assigned homework to the class.
To ascribe; attribute: sorted the rocks by assigning them to different categories. See Synonyms at attribute.
Law To transfer (property, rights, or interests) from one to another.
To place (a person or a military unit) under a specific command.

n. Law
An assignee.

[Middle English assignen, from Old French assigner, from Latin assignāre : ad-, ad- + signāre, to mark (from signum, sign; see sek^w-¹ in Indo-European roots).]
as·sign'a·bil'i·ty n., as·sign'a·ble adj., as·sign'a·bly adv., as·sign'er n.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Assign

As*sign"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Assigned; p. pr. & vb. n. Assigning.] [OE. assignen, asignen, F. assigner, fr. L. assignare; ad + signare to mark, mark out, designate, signum mark, sign. See Sign.]

1. To appoint; to allot; to apportion; to make over.

In the order I assign to them. --Loudon.

The man who could feel thus was worthy of a better station than that in which his lot had been assigned. --Southey.

He assigned to his men their several posts. --Prescott.

2. To fix, specify, select, or designate; to point out authoritatively or exactly; as, to assign a limit; to assign counsel for a prisoner; to assign a day for trial.

All as the dwarf the way to her assigned. --Spenser.

It is not easy to assign a period more eventful. --De Quincey.

3. (Law) To transfer, or make over to another, esp. to transfer to, and vest in, certain persons, called assignees, for the benefit of creditors.

To assign dower, to set out by metes and bounds the widow's share or portion in an estate. --Kent.

Assign

As*sign"\, n. [From Assign, v.] A thing pertaining or belonging to something else; an appurtenance. [Obs.]

Six French rapiers and poniards, with their assigns, as girdles, hangers, and so. --Shak.

Assign

As*sign"\, n. [See Assignee.] (Law) A person to whom property or an interest is transferred; as, a deed to a man and his heirs and assigns.

ASsign

AS*sign"\, v. i. (Law) To transfer or pass over property to another, whether for the benefit of the assignee or of the assignor's creditors, or in furtherance of some trust.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : assign

Spanish: asignar, atribuir,

German: übertragen,

Japanese: 割当てる

More Translations »

assign

1297, from O.Fr. assigner, from L. assignare "to mark out, to allot by sign," from ad- "to" + signare "make a sign," from signum "mark" (see sign). Main original use was in Eng. law, in transferences of personal property. The act of being so transferred was an assignation (c.1400). General meaning "to fix, settle, determine, appoint" is from c.1305. Assignment "a task assigned (to someone)" is from c.1848.

Assign

The act of clearing houses and brokerages selecting short option and future contract holders to deliver underlying securities or commodities of maturing or exercised/tendered contracts.

Investopedia Commentary

Not all contracts will typically be exercised or tendered, and those that are need to be settled with delivery of the underlying security/commodity. Most often clearing houses will randomly allocate assigned contracts to brokerages who in turn randomly select which of their clients will assigned.

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Futures Fundamentals

assign

To decide which writer of an option or futures contract (the party that is short the security) will be required to perform the terms of the contract. Clearing corporations and brokerage companies usually assign this responsibility in a random manner when the holders of the contracts ask for delivery of the asset specified in the contract.

Main Entry: ¹as·sign
Pronunciation: &-'sIn
Function: transitive verb
1 : to transfer (property or rights) to another assigning patent rights —J. K. Owens>
2 : to appoint to a post or duty <assigned to represent the defendant>
3 : to fix or specify in relationship or correspondence assign as error the giving or the failure to give an instruction unless that party objects thereto —Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 51> —as·sign·abil·i·ty /&-"sI-n&-'bi-l&-tE/ noun —as·sign·able /&-'sI-n&-b&l/ adjective —as·sign·or /&-'sI-n&r/ noun

Main Entry: ²assign
Function: noun
: ASSIGNEE

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