Search the Dictionary

To deal out; to assign to a use; to bestow for an object or purpose; to apply; to employ; to dispose of. Importuned him that what he designed to bestow on her funeral, he would rather dispose among the poor. Evelyn.

Tending to distribute; serving to divide and assign in portions; dealing to each his proper share. "Distributive justice." Swift.

Hence, any assigned service or business; as, the duties of a policeman, or a soldier; to be on duty. With records sweet of duties done. Keble. To employ him on the hardest and most imperative duty. Hallam. Duty is a graver term than obligation. A duty hardly exists to do trivial things; but there may be an obligation t…

ct of an action, or the one to whom an act is done or on whom a right is conferred; as in assignee, donee, alienee, grantee, etc. It is correlative to -or, the agent or doer.

A dwelling place assigned to happy souls after death; the seat of future happiness; Paradise.

A real right, susceptible of assignment and of descent, charged on productive real estate, the right being coupled with the enjoyment of the property on condition of taking care of the estate and paying taxes, and sometimes a small rent. Heumann.

A putting in, or assigning to, a definite place; localization; as, the emplacement of a structure.

Any tabular statement of the assigned places of a heavenly body, as a planet or comet, on several successive days.

y, or upon principles of equity jurisprudence; as, an equitable estate; equitable assets, assignment, mortgage, etc. Abbott.

A process prescribed or assigned for testing qualification; as, the examination of a student, or of a candidate for admission to the bar or the ministry. He neglected the studies, . . . stood low at the examinations. Macaulay. Examination in chief, or Direct examination (Law), that examination which is made of a witnes…

he is accredited, and authorizing him to exercise his powers in the place to which he is assigned.

g, or promoting skill, health, mental, improvement, moral discipline, etc.; that which is assigned or prescribed for such ebbs; hence, a disquisition; a lesson; a task; as, military or naval exercises; musical exercises; an exercise in composition. The clumsy exercises of the European tourney. Prescott. He seems to hav…

To value, as lands taken by a writ of extent in satisfaction of a debt; to assign by writ of extent. Extended letter (Typog.), a letter, or style of type, having a broader face than is usual for a letter or type of the same height.

To fall in. (a) To sink inwards; as, the roof fell in. (b) (Mil.) To take one's proper or assigned place in line; as, to fall in on the right. (c) To come to an end; to terminate; to lapse; as, on the death of Mr. B., the annuuity, which he had so long received, fell in. (d) To become operative. "The reversion, to whic…

The assignment of a bastard child to some one as its ather; affiliation. Smart.

The part of the house assigned to the members.

The natural or assigned action of any power or faculty, as of the soul, or of the intellect; the exertion of an energy of some determinate kind. As the mind opens, and its functions spread. Pope.

To assign to some function or office. [R.]

To attribute; to assign; to adjudge. I don't wonder at people's giving him to me as a lover. Sheridan.

The man or male being (or object personified to which the masculine gender is assigned), previously designated; a pronoun of the masculine gender, usually referring to a specified subject already indicated. Thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. Gen. iii. 16. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God;…