Definitions

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

  • transitive verb To consign to an inferior or obscure place, rank, category, or condition.
  • transitive verb To refer or assign (a matter or task, for example) for decision or action.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To send away or out of the way; consign, as to some obscure or remote destination; banish; dismiss.
  • In Roman law, to send into exile; cause to remove a certain distance from Rome for a certain period.
  • In law, to remit or put off to an inferior remedy.

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

  • transitive verb To remove, usually to an inferior position; to consign; to transfer; specifically, to send into exile; to banish.

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

  • adjective past participial Relegated; exiled.
  • verb Exile, banish, remove, or send away.
  • verb transitive Consign or assign.
  • verb transitive Refer or submit.
  • noun Roman history, obsolete A person who has been banished from proximity to Rome for a set time, but without losing his civil rights.

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

  • verb expel, as if by official decree
  • verb assign to a lower position; reduce in rank
  • verb refer to another person for decision or judgment
  • verb assign to a class or kind

Etymologies

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

[Middle English relegaten, to banish, from Latin relēgāre, relēgāt- : re-, re- + lēgāre, to send, depute; see leg- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

First attested circa 1425: from the Classical Latin relēgātus, the perfect passive participle of relēgō (“I dispatch”, “I banish”).

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

First attested in 1561: from relēgāt-, the perfect passive participial stem of relēgō (“I dispatch”, “I banish”).

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

First attested circa 1550: from the Classical Latin relēgātus ("banished person”, “exile"), the nominative singular masculine substantive form of relēgātus, the perfect passive participle of relēgō (“I dispatch”, “I banish”).

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