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Glite Dictionary
🚫 To send away forever 📦 To send for sale 🗝️ To give for safekeeping
to consign

to consign

1 7.0
Give something to another person or place to keep safe
  • verb
  • /kənˈsaɪn/
translation icon : entregar a
  • He got out, blinked at the cruel noonday dazzle, and decided to take a chance, consigning himself to the bus that had just pulled up at the curb.

Examples

  • Consigned to the care of his nanny, he became more introspective, welcoming his mother back with a handshake rather than a hug.

    Princes of the Palace - The Royal British Family (2016)

  • She decided to consign her old furniture to a charity shop for donation.

  • All that is in the house, the husband consigns to the wife.

    Academic text (1993)

  • One of the most important ways was to consign a child to his care, thus giving him full authority over the child's time and labor.

    Academic text (2004)

  • I have two stones consigned to me for cutting.

    The Cutter (2005)

  • Daniels's health-care plan in Indiana facilitated the transfer of money previously consigned to Medicaid into individual health-savings accounts and simultaneously extended coverage to more than 130,000 uninsured individuals.

    Academic text (2009)

  • The artist chose to consign her paintings to the gallery for an upcoming exhibition.

  • After cleaning out his closet, he consigns the clothes he no longer wears to a secondhand store.

Synonyms

to deliver
vsto consign
  • Formal
313 3.0

To hand someone or something to another person, an authority

focuses on care or safekeeping rather than formal transfer to authority
to hand over
vsto consign
296 2.8

Give something to someone because you have to

involves giving into another's care or custody rather than forced transfer
to bail
vsto consign
  • Formal
1 8.4

Give something to another person to hold for a short time

is used for giving items for care or safekeeping without legal time limits

Antonyms

to keep
∞ 1.0

To continue doing something or stay in the same state

to hold
∞ 1.9

To stop yourself from showing a feeling or reaction

How Entrusted

to entrust
87 4.1
to consign
1 7.0
to deliver
933 1.0
to hand over
296 2.8
to give
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

consign infinitive
consigned past
consigned past participle
consigning present participle
consigns third person singular

Morphology

consign = sign (opaque) = con + sign

Although analyzable as 'con-' + 'sign', the sense 'give over for safekeeping' reflects a specialized usage from borrowings rather than a directly predictable combination.

Etymology

Consign originally meant to mark or seal something before giving it to another, from Latin consignare ('to mark' or 'to seal') and the same root as sign. So to consign an item for safekeeping is to hand it over under an agreed 'seal' or care.