• IPA: /əˈsaɪn/

assign (assigns, present participle assigning; past and past participle assigned)

1. (transitive) To designate or set apart something for some purpose.

   to assign a day for trial

2. (transitive) To appoint or select someone for some office.

   to assign counsel for a prisoner

3. (transitive) To allot or give something as a task.
   • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 639762314 ↗, page 0105 ↗:

     Captain Edward Carlisle […] felt a curious sensation of helplessness seize upon him as he met her steady gaze, […]; he could not tell what this prisoner might do. He cursed the fate which had assigned such a duty, cursed especially that fate which forced a gallant soldier to meet so superb a woman as this under handicap so hard.

4. (transitive) To attribute or sort something into categories.
5. (transitive, legal) To transfer property, a legal right, etc., from one person to another.
6. (transitive, programming) To give (a value) to a variable.

   We assign 100 to x.

• (set apart something for some purpose) allocate, earmark; see also Thesaurus:set apart
• (transfer property) consign, convey; see also Thesaurus:transfer

• French: désigner
• German: zuweisen
• Italian: assegnare, accantonare
• Portuguese: designar, atribuir
• Russian: назнача́ть
• Spanish: asignar

• German: zuteilen
• Italian: assegnare
• Portuguese: designar
• Russian: назнача́ть
• Spanish: designar

• French: assigner
• Italian: assegnare
• Portuguese: designar, imputar, atribuir
• Spanish: asignar

• French: attribuer, assigner
• Italian: categorizzare, attribuire
• Portuguese: atribuir

• Italian: assegnare, attribuire
• Portuguese: conceder, conferir, imputar
• Spanish: ceder

• French: assigner
• German: zuweisen

assign (plural assigns)

1. An assignee.
   • 1843 December 18, Charles Dickens, “Stave I. Marley’s Ghost.”, in A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas, London: Chapman & Hall, […], OCLC 55746801 ↗, page 2 ↗:

     Scrooge knew he was dead ? Of course he did. How could it be otherwise ? Scrooge and he were partners for I don’t know how many years. Scrooge was his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole assign, his sole residuary legatee, his sole friend and his sole mourner.

2. (obsolete) A thing relating or belonging to something else; an appurtenance.
   • c. 1599–1602, William Shakespeare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: […] (Second Quarto), London: Printed by I[ames] R[oberts] for N[icholas] L[ing] […], published 1604, OCLC 760858814 ↗, [Act V, scene ii]:

     The King ſir hath wagerd with him ſix Barbary horſes, againgſt the which hee has impaund as I take it ſix French Rapiers and Poynards, with their aſſignes, as girdle, hanger and ſo.

3. (obsolete) An assignment or appointment.
4. (obsolete) A design or purpose.