Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A person authorized to act as representative for another; a deputy or agent.
  • noun A representative to a conference or convention.
  • noun A member of a House of Delegates, the lower house of the Maryland, Virginia, or West Virginia legislature.
  • noun An elected or appointed representative of a US territory in the House of Representatives who is entitled to speak but not vote.
  • transitive verb To authorize and send (another person) as one's representative.
  • transitive verb To commit or entrust to another.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Deputed; commissioned or sent to act for or represent another.
  • noun A person appointed and sent by another or by others, with power to transact business as his or their representative; a deputy; a commissioner; an attorney.
  • noun Specifically In the United States: A person elected or appointed to represent a Territory in Congress, as distinguished from the representatives of States.
  • noun A person sent with representative powers to a convention, conference, or other assembly for nomination of officers, or for drafting or altering a constitution, or for the transaction of the business of the organization which such persons collectively represent.
  • noun In Great Britain: A commissioner formerly appointed by the crown, under the great seal, to hear and determine appeals from the ecclesiastical courts.
  • noun One of a committee chosen by the house of convocation in the University of Oxford, with power to act.
  • noun A layman appointed to attend an ecclesiastical council.
  • noun The lower house of the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church (in full, House of Clerical and Lay Delegates).
  • To depute; appropriately, to send with power to transact business as a representative: as. he was delegated to the convention.
  • To intrust; commit; deliver to another's care and management: as, to delegate authority or power to a representative.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Sent to act for or represent another; deputed.
  • noun Any one sent and empowered to act for another; one deputed to represent; a chosen deputy; a representative; a commissioner; a vicar.
  • noun U.S., U.S. One elected by the people of a territory to represent them in Congress, where he has the right of debating, but not of voting.
  • noun U.S. One sent by any constituency to act as its representative in a convention.
  • noun [Eng.] formerly, the great court of appeal from the archbishops' courts and also from the court of admiralty. It is now abolished, and the privy council is the immediate court of appeal in such cases.
  • transitive verb To send as one's representative; to empower as an ambassador; to send with power to transact business; to commission; to depute; to authorize.
  • transitive verb To intrust to the care or management of another; to transfer; to assign; to commit.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun a person authorized to act as representative for another; a deputy
  • noun a representative at a conference, etc.
  • noun US an appointed representative in some legislative bodies
  • noun computing a type of variable storing a reference to a method with a particular signature, analogous to a function pointer
  • verb to authorize someone to be a delegate
  • verb to commit a task to someone, especially a subordinate
  • verb computing (Internet) (of a subdomain) to give away authority over a subdomain; to allow someone else to create sub-subdomains of a subdomain of yours

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb give an assignment to (a person) to a post, or assign a task to (a person)
  • verb transfer power to someone
  • noun a person appointed or elected to represent others

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English delegat, from Medieval Latin dēlēgātus, from past participle of dēlēgāre, to dispatch : Latin dē-, de- + Latin lēgāre, to send; see leg- in Indo-European roots.]

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Examples

  • On Wednesday the Clinton camp started pushing hard on the idea that a delegate is a delegate and if they need to pack on super delegates to overwhelm Obama's edge with elected delegates then so be it.

    More on John Lewis' defection to Obama 2008

  • Under the Delegate Selection Rules, a delegate is asked to "in good conscience reflect the sentiments of those who elected them."

    Pledged Delegates Vs. “Bound” Delegates - Swampland - TIME.com 2008

  • On Wednesday the Clinton camp started pushing hard on the idea that a delegate is a delegate and if they need to pack on super delegates to overwhelm Obama's edge with elected delegates then so be it.

    More on John Lewis' defection to Obama 2008

  • If we take a look at the -- what we call the delegate equivalence in Washington state on the Republican side, you can see how close it is.

    CNN Transcript Feb 9, 2008 2008

  • Not easy to do that because in some of the states where there are caucuses, they don't release the popular vote, they just release what they call the delegate equivalent.

    CNN Transcript Apr 22, 2008 2008

  • These are what they call delegate equivalents, as opposed to the hard number of voters coming in, 9,870 for Barack Obama to 4,661.

    CNN Transcript Feb 9, 2008 2008

  • The Arab League plan calls on Mr. Assad to delegate his responsibilities to his vice president, so the debate in the Council swirled around whether using the word "delegate" actually represents a demand that Mr. Assad step down, according to a diplomat present, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the subject.

    NYT > Global Home By NEIL MacFARQUHAR 2012

  • The Arab League plan calls on Mr. Assad to delegate his responsibilities to his vice president, so the debate in the Council swirled around whether using the word "delegate" actually represents a demand that Mr. Assad step down, according to a diplomat present, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the subject.

    NYT > Home Page By NEIL MacFARQUHAR 2012

  • The Arab League plan calls on Mr. Assad to delegate his responsibilities to his vice president, so the debate in the Council swirled around whether using the word "delegate" actually represents a demand that Mr. Assad step down, according to one diplomat.

    NYT > Home Page By NEIL MacFARQUHAR 2012

  • Someone who won one delegate is a loser.period. take care tony and lido

    Think Progress » Giuliani: My ‘Warped View’ Is That Huge Wall Street Bonuses Are ‘Wonderful’ 2010

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