Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

Date: 1300-1400
Language: Old French
Origin: assigner, from Latin assignare, from ad- 'to' + signare 'to mark'

assign

 verb
     
as‧sign [transitive]
1 to give someone a particular job or make them responsible for a particular person or thing
assign somebody a task/role
I've been assigned the task of looking after the new students.
assign somebody to something
Jan's been assigned to the Asian Affairs Bureau.
assign somebody to do something
Madison was assigned to investigate a balloon accident.
assign somebody something
Assign each student a partner.
2 to give a particular time, value, place etc to something:
How much time have you assigned for the meeting?
assign something to something
A code was assigned to each batch of work.
3 to give money, equipment etc to someone to use
assign something to somebody
A personal bodyguard had been assigned to her.
assign somebody something
They assigned me a small room.
Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Advanced Learner's Dictionary.

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