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to delegate

to delegate

45 3.7
To give a job and authority to someone so they do it for you
  • verb
  • /ˈdɛlɪɡeɪt/
translation icon : delegar (en alguien)
  • To improve efficiency, managers should delegate tasks to their staff members.
  • delegate authority
  • delegate powers
  • delegate responsibility

You're, you're, you're trying to delegate any kind of power to someone else.

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Examples

  • I struggled to delegate and build a team around me.

  • Because of socialization, women expect to assume caregiving responsibilities, and men expect to delegate those responsibilities.

    Academic text (1990)
  • Because if you are not ready to delegate, you are not ready to start a team, right?

  • That is going to make you way more cash flow and just figure out how to delegate your business to where you are not involved.

  • Do only those things that only you can do, and delegate everything else.

    Fiction book (2002)
  • Those are tasks you of course just delegate to other people.

  • Delegate more to your teams.

  • I delegate to you the authority to run this household... and turn over to you the keys to your life.

  • As the demands upon all of us grew, we delegated more and more of that.

  • Start delegating your daily tasks to technology.

Synonyms

to assign
vsto delegate
487 2.7

Give someone a specific task, duty, or position of responsibility

can give authority as well as tasks not only single duties
to task
vsto delegate
57 2.6

To give someone a piece of work they must do

often transfers authority too not just one piece of work
to pass the baton
vsto delegate
  • Informal
1 3.5

To give responsibility or control to another person during a planned change

can transfer authority anytime not only in a scheduled succession
to depute
vsto delegate
  • UK
1 7.8

To choose someone to act for you

gives responsibility or authority more generally not only formal appointment
to subdelegate
vsto delegate
  • Formal
7.7

To give some of your tasks or power to another person

means giving authority directly rather than passing on received powers

Antonyms

236 3.4

To keep having something such as a job or possession

Compounds

9.9

A person the Pope sends to represent the Vatican in a country with no official relations

9.1

A union representative who visits workplaces to check that agreements with employers are kept

How Much

to relinquish
  • Formal
69 7.2
to delegate
45 3.7
to assign
487 2.7
to keep
1.0

Surface Forms

delegate infinitive
delegated past
delegated past participle
delegating present participle
delegates third person singular

Etymology

To delegate as a verb comes from Latin de- and legare, meaning 'away' and 'to send', so it originally meant to 'send someone to do a job'. That's why today to delegate is to give a task or responsibility to someone else.