—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.
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 sekw-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.
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.
give an assignment to (a person) to a post, or assign a task to (a person) [syn: delegate]
2.
give out; "We were assigned new uniforms"
3.
attribute or credit to; "We attributed this quotation to Shakespeare"; "People impute great cleverness to cats" [syn: impute]
4.
select something or someone for a specific purpose; "The teacher assigned him to lead his classmates in the exercise"
5.
attribute or give; "She put too much emphasis on her the last statement"; "He put all his efforts into this job"; "The teacher put an interesting twist to the interpretation of the story" [syn: put]
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.
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 <the general
practice by inventors of 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 <no party may 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
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.
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.
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.
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